Ironton Evening Tribune
January 22,1937
Water Pouring Over concrete Wall Today; 18,000 Homeless As Flood Tide Sweeps City.
Portsmouth, O. Jan. 22-(AP)- A – Tide of debris-filled waters spilled over Portsmouth’s flood wall for the first time in 24 years today and swished into streets like through a mill race.
Waters in the business section, carrying boxes, tree limbs, cans, and portions of small buildings which had fallen before the pressure of the flood rose rapidly. Topping of the 60-foot flood wall protecting the city’s south side by the turbid Ohio river current followed breaks in the earthen levees over a half-mile stretch in the west and north sections bordering the Scioto river.
Flood waters had cut off all main roads leading into Portsmouth at Operations on the Chesapeake and Ohio, and Baltimore and Ohio railroad lines were halted. The Norfolk and Western continued to operate, but its trains ran far behind schedule.
No persons could be seen on the streets when the warning cry from flood barrier guards came that water was “coming over.” The waters, which pushed along at a sluggish pace of five miles an hour in the Ohio and Scioto rivers, seemed to rush pell-mell through Portsmouth’s streets.
City officials, receiving reports of continued rains further up the valley and no lessening of the flood waters below to allow a run-off of the high waters here, prepared for a siege of at least a week. Most grocery stores were stripped of all available supplies.
Local River Gauge Now Under Water; Rise 1.6 Inch an Hour
Ironton Evening Tribune January 22, 1937
A local crest of at least sixty-three feet, with possibility and, in fact, the probability that the 1913 record mark of 67”10 ½” inches may be reached, was the dark prediction made by government engineers today following a morning survey of sluggish bulging Ohio river. Water has gone over the local river gauge, and an estimate for the Ironton reading is marked by a bit of guesswork.
However, comparisons with the Ashland gauge indicate that Ironton at 11 a.m. had a river stage of somewhere near 59 feet and six or seven inches. The picture is made all the darker because it is climbing here at a rate of better than 1 ½” per hour, and no immediate relief is in sight.
The latest reading at Ashland, at 11 A.M., was 62.8 feet, and W.C. Dovereau of Cincinnati has predicted a crest of at least 65 or 66 feet at Ashland, which means that Ironton will get between 62 and 63 feet at least, or better than three more feet of water. Persons closer to the situation that this is a conservative estimate and that the river will go even higher on water now in sight.
The river was rising throughout its length, with a climb of .2 feet an hour at Pittsburgh in the face of a rainfall of 1:20 inches. Four more feet of water are expected there. Wheeling had a rise of .6 feet an hour, rainfall of 1.0 inches, and expected eight more feet.
In the New Martinsville neighborhood, the river is climbing at the rapid rate of .4 feet an hour, or better than four inches an hour. Near Marietta, the climb is at a rate of .2 foot an hour, and from Parkersburg down to Ravenwood, the climb is at a rate of .2 foot an hour, and from Parkersburg, down to Ravenswood, the climb is 1 1/8 tenths foot an hour.
The local rainfall since Thursday morning was .90 inches, which has been general throughout the valley, warning all residents that the greatest January flood in history and perhaps the greatest of all months is in the making.
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