This is my mother, Jeannette Zimov. She was a 17 year old senior attending Hughes
High School in 1937, the year of the great flood. When school was closed she assembled
a scrapbook with newspaper clippings from the three major Cincinnati newspapers
plus snapshots taken along 4th street. Almost everyone she knew found their way
downtown to see the flood waters which were lapping against the doors of the H&S
Pogue Co. on the NE corner of 4th & Race St. The damage and destruction were
widespread, with some businesses unable to be salvaged. Every family in the city
was affected in some way. Schools were closed. Clean water was not available. Streetcars
could not run. Electric service was sporadic. My mother lived on Windham Ave. in
Avondale. The fire station on Rockdale Ave., the next street, made potable water
available to the neighborhood, so my mother and her brothers loaded a wagon with
bottles and jars and filled them for the family to use for cooking and drinking.
The family drove to Dayton, Ohio to their aunt and uncle's apartment, at the end
of the first week, so the family could bathe. The two positive aspects of the flood
were the great sense of community with everyone helping to cope and clean up, plus
exams were cancelled in the high schools.