Ohio River Floods
Higginsport Area

Visitors to the area frequently ask "how often does the River flood". The answer is, of course, "whenever it wants to". No damaging floods occurred in this area for over 30 years, a period of time that happened to correspond with great improvements made to the lock and dam system on the Ohio River, and the absence of damaging floods during this period was frequently cited as a benefit of the improved lock system. The lock and dam system is, however, principally to improve river navigability, and not for flood control. Once the water level downriver of the locks is equal to the water level upriver of the locks, it's all in the hands of God! As we learned in 1997, when the flood waters reached nearly 65 feet, despite history's tendency to repeat itself, it's easy to be lulled into complacency by an extended period with no damaging floods. Locks are located about every 60 miles on the Ohio River, and the area between each lock is referred to as a "pool". Higginsport lies within the boundaries of the Maysville Pool, that area upriver of the Meldahl Locks, and downriver of the Greenup Locks & Dam located between Portsmouth and Ironton, Ohio. The normal level of the Maysville pool is 34 feet. Technically, flood stage is 50 feet, but most of the towns in the Maysville pool are safe from floodwaters under 55 ft. Since accurate record keeping began in 1831, there have been 15 floods in this part of the Ohio River. The worst were in 1884 (71.1 ft) and in 1937 (79.9 ft.). The longest period between floods was 32 years (1964 to 1996) and the shortest was 1 year. Floods on this part of the Ohio River occurred in two consecutive years on two occasions, once in 1883 - 1884 (66.5 ft. and 71.1 ft.), and again in 1996-1997 (57.3 ft. and 64.7 ft.).

Flood of 1913 The photo above is reproduced from a post card dated 1913, when the water level reached nearly 70 ft. The house in the above photo is located on Hwy. 221 north of Higginsport. At the time the photo was taken, the home was owned by Russell Seidell. The home survived this and subsequent floods and is now owned by the Mike Molenkamp family.

Flood of 1937 The above image is an actual photo taken of Higginsport as the waters were still rising during the 1937 flood. When the 1937 flood crested, most of the town was inundated with flood waters. Even in the 1937 flood the old Higginsport School was safe, and was used as a base of operations to house, feed and help town residents who's homes were under water.

Flood of 1997 The 1997 flood is, of course, still fresh in everyone's memory. The above photo is the property along Cherry Alley near Brown Street, one of the higher points on the riverfront in Higginsport. Other homes toward the eastern edge of the town were even harder hit by the flood waters. In 1997 the only road open to get in and out of Higginsport was Hwy. 505.

Follow this link for news article on 1997 Flood and flood history

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