Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Co. (SIGECO) power plant at 2501 Broadway by flood water. (pump room interior) The rains started in December and they kept coming and they kept coming and they kept coming until, by the middle of January, the Ohio was above flood stage virtually everywhere.� The rain combined with sleet and snow to create a hazardous scene all along the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois. Water covered 70 percent of Louisville, 90 percent of Jeffersonville and most of New Albany. The flood killed 385 people in all, leaving 1 million homeless and causing $250 million in property damage ($3.4 billion today), according to one National Weather Service estimate. Evansville residents had dealt with floods before, in 1907, 1913, 1927 and 1933. But when they awakened January 10, 1937 to a thick layer of ice on top of already soaked ground, they suspected this one might be worse. A week later, the heaviest rains fell, submerging more than half the city. On January 24, martial law was declared. On Jan. 31, the river crested at 54.74 feet. [19 feet above flood stage] Amazingly, though Evansville was among the hardest hit, no one drowned in Vanderburgh County. (http://www.greensburgdailynews.com/opinion/columns/flood-put-evansville-under-water/article_28cff413-249c-5378-aa3e-9a76a9a0b108.html) As for the power plant shown here, Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co. refused to be licked by a merciless river so Evansville was the only flooded-out city from Pittsburgh to Cairo to save its power supply. Several heroic workers were sealed 50 feet down in a shaft surrounded by the floodwater to man a vital pumping station. A city plunged into darkness would have crippled relief efforts and invited panic. (http://www.courierpress.com/story/news/local/2017/01/28/80-years-ago-river-flood-consumed-evansville/97039764/)