The Evansville Water Works and the 1937 Flood

General water works engineering practice takes cognizance of the facts that a most disastrous flood passed down the Ohio River Valley in January and February, 1937, and acknowledgment must be given that all previous basic design data with reference to high water elevations for new water works construction and improvements to existing plants must be and are from this time, revised to higher elevations in the Ohio River Valley and its tributaries. This brief discussion deals with the isolated hazardous conditions encountered and the restoration repair work performed under difficulties at the Evansville municipal water plant. Evansville, Indiana, with its population of 105,000 is a very busy industrial city, located peculiarly around the outer edge of a crescent reverse bend of the Ohio River. The width of the Kentucky peninsula due west from the water plant is only 4,800 feet, and the distance between the two channels of the Ohio River at this point is only 7,200 feet. The peninsula land is flooded at river stage of 40 feet. A normal river stage at Evansville is maintained at about 9 feet. For engineering information, zero of the river stages given in this discussion is 329.2, U. S. Geodetic Datum. At the Evansville gauge, the flood stage of 1884 was 48 feet, in 1913 the stage was 48.4 feet, and the official river stage in January, 1937, on the 31st, was 53.75 feet. The river stage at the water plant one mile upstream was recorded at 53.96 feet.