THE METEOROLOGY OF GREAT FLOODS IN THE EASTERN 



UNITED STATES » 



By Charles F. Brooks and Alfred H. Thiessen 



During January 1937 a standing high-pressure area in the south- 

 western North Atlantic sent steamy tropical air into the United 

 States day after day, which, on meeting a persistent flow of polar 

 air in a nearly stationary southwest-northeast belt, precipitated 

 phenomenal rainfalls. Locally exceeding 20 inches, the rains ex- 

 tended across the lower Mississippi and almost simultaneously over 

 the entire Ohio Basin. Dammed by the flooded lower Mississippi, 

 the Ohio River became a lake, 15 miles wide in some places, and nearly 

 10 feet above the highest stages previously known. All the river 

 cities, except Cairo, were partially submerged; one-sixth of Cincinnati 

 was under water, one-half of Evansville, and more of Louisville. 

 The inundation of Louisville drowned several persons and caused an 

 estimated monetary loss of $200,000,000: that the loss of life was 

 not very much greater was owing to the extraordinary service of the 

 local radio station WHAS. In 5 days this station broadcast 16,500 

 separate appeals for help. The calls were heard on sound trucks 

 at the shore and on radio-equipped boats that were thus able to effect 

 the removal of at least 58,000 persons from their flooded homes. 2 

 The January rainfall at Louisville was 18.8 inches, of which 10.31 

 fell in the 5-day period January 20-24. The death toll for the whole 

 flood was 137, as compiled by the American Red Cross. 3 The number 

 injured was 544; but 16,445 individuals had to be hospitalized. Over 

 the 12,721 square miles affected, 1,495,287 people were directly sub- 

 jected to the flood, and 1,062,661 of these were completely dependent 

 on the Red Cross for every primary necessity of life; 155,134 families 

 required rescue from the flood, transportation to dry ground, and 

 •immediate food and shelter; they were taken care of in 1,575 refugee 

 centers and tent cities; 73,817 other families required food and 

 clothing. Financial assistance in rehabilitation was later required 



1 Reprinted by permission, with additions and revisions, from The Geographical Review, vol. 27, No. 2, 

 April 1937, with some substitutions and addenda by the authors. The assistance of officials of the U. S. 

 Weather Bureau and the American Red Cross in supplying helpful information is gratefully acknowledged. 



• Bauman, Wm., Narrative of a flood refugee; Carleton, H. B., A boatman's story, Dixiana, vol. 1, pp. 3-17, 

 1937; and Breaux, G. A., in Filson Club Hist. Quart., April 1937. 



» The Ohio-Mississippi Valley flood disaster of 1937, report of relief operations of the American Red Cross. 

 ARC 977, 252 pp., illus., bibliog., Washington, D. C, 1938. 



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