The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, 385 people died, one million people were left homeless and property losses reached $500 million. Federal and state resources were strained to aid recovery as the disaster occurred during the depths of the Great Depression and a few years after the beginning of the Dust Bowl.
Downtown Huntington, West Virginia, during the Great Flood of 1937
Members of a refugee family left homeless by the flood in Shawneetown, Illinois
Louisville's Central Station, flooded
An upturned farmhouse in Posey County, Indiana
Cairo is the southernmost city in Illinois and the county seat of Alexander County. A river city, Cairo has the lowest elevation of any location in Illinois and is the only Illinois city to be surrounded by levees. It is in the river-crossed area of Southern Illinois known as "Little Egypt", for which the city is named, after Egypt's capital on the Nile. The city is coterminous with Cairo Precinct.
Washington Avenue in Cairo, Illinois
Embarkation of Union troops from Cairo on January 10, 1862
General Grant's headquarters.
The Cairo Levee underpass