Lessons from 1937 Flood still resonate
Published 12:00am Sunday, January 29, 2012Seventy five years later and the impact of one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the Tri-State can still be felt today.
The 1937 Flood truly changed the way our region views the Ohio River.
The waterway had long been considered an integral part of the development of the Ohio Valley and our entire region. But it was easy to forget that Mother Nature is powerful and can change the course of our lives.
So it was that January in 1937 when the rain continued to come down and the river kept going up. Half of Ironton was underwater and other river communities across the Tri-State faced similar catastrophic impact.
Now, many people would think that our region has a healthy appreciation for what the river can do but that isn’t exactly the case.
How easily we forget.
Floodwalls and other control systems keep the Ohio from overtaking our communities again. But many of those no longer meet the requirements and aren’t as strong as they once were.
Even in this time of tightening government budgets and a stunted economy, we cannot lose sight of what these protections do for our communities and why they remain important.
On this anniversary of a devastating natural disaster, it is vital to reflect on the mistakes of the past so that we are not doomed to repeat them.
