Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Two women use a garden hose and a broom to tackle the mud left behind on the porch of a
flooded home somewhere in rural Posey County, Indiana. The Depression-era WPA
provided jobs for thousands of unemployed men, and cities devastated by the 1937 flood
were able to enlist WPA workers in their post-flood cleanup efforts. Rural residents,
however, were left pretty much on their own. (Courtesy the Library of Congress.)
Believe it or not, this was a chicken house before the 1937 flood inundated this farm in Po-
sey County, Indiana. The raging floodwaters not only knocked the frame structure off its
foundation, but also left it twisted like a pretzel. One Indiana farmer later told of seeing his
house swept away by the flood, which then obligingly brought him another that it deposited
on his property. (Courtesy the Library of Congress.)
A Chicago newspaper photographer looking down from an airliner took this aerial shot of a
flooded Evansville, Indiana. Records show January 1937 was the wettest single month
(14.78 inches of rain and snow) in Evansville history, and that added to the torrent of water
working its way down the Ohio River. Ten miles of the city's streets were covered with wa-
ter; the U.S. Coast Guard arrived for rescue duty, and Red Cross shelters overflowed with
refugees.
