HeyJaredThe 1937 Flood Journal
Stories, images and discoveries about the Ohio River disaster that devastated my family and an entire region.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
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- Sep 12, 2026
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- Jul 7, 2026
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‘Deeds of Heroism’ (opens the original)
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JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA — A young girl in the Port Fulton neighborhood east of downtown Jeffersonville approached Catherine Richardson at the height of the flood.“Could you please tell me where is the flood?” she asked.The girl was visiting the area when the disaster struck. She didn’t understand why they were stranded. She hadn’t seen the flood.“[They] kept her away,” Catherine later said. “They wouldn’t let her see anything.”Catherine was 40 years old and married to a city council member. They
And the Rains Fell and the Waters Rose (opens the original)
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In May 2016 I discovered a 1937 flood diary authored by my great uncle Charles “Chic” Field in the Jeffersonville Township Library in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The diary is a daily account of the flood, from January 20 to February 7, 1937. It’s more than 4,000 words of people, places, activities, evacuations, searches, weather reports and river forecasts. Most of what I know about my family’s flood experience comes from uncle Chic’s diary and the oral history of my father, Ralph Sagebiel, who was
How I Met Flood Survivor Lettie Hatcher Clark (opens the original)
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PORTSMOUTH, OHIO — It’s been a decade since my first trip to this southern Ohio river town in the Appalachian foothills. I was returning home from Indiana, and Portsmouth was not far off the usual route.By this time, the flood had expanded in my consciousness. I was committed to exploring Ohio River locations beyond my father’s hometown. Portsmouth was next on the list.I already knew about Lettie Hatcher Clark. I had seen Lettie on YouTube because she was part of an oral history project by the P
The Town That Moved: Leavenworth, Indiana (opens the original)
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LEAVENWORTH, INDIANA — The next time I might try the meatloaf or chicken pot pie. But I wouldn’t change the view.It was a Sunday afternoon in April at the popular Overlook Restaurant, which sits on a bluff above the Ohio River. Our cousins brought us here for lunch, and no one was in a hurry to leave.Leavenworth is a town of 289 people in Crawford County, Indiana, about 40 miles west of Louisville, Kentucky. It enjoys a panoramic view of the Ohio River, absent the threat of flood.However, that w
'The Gas Is Bubbling Up and Burning on the Water' (opens the original)
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HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA — James Wellman, a student at Marshall College, was astonished at all he’d seen as the Ohio River poured into Huntington.“Many strange things have happened here and in this vicinity,” James wrote in a letter to a friend in coastal North Carolina.<div class="image2
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