Ohio River flood of 1937

===Government response===
In January 1937, the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]], District Engineer, MAJ Bernard Smith dispatched an entire fleet down the [[Cumberland River]] for rescue and relief work in response to the severe flooding. The bridges were too low to allow the vessels to pass under, so the vessels were forced to steam across farmland and bridge approaches, dodging telephone and power lines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/history/dates_in_history.htm |title=Dates In History |publisher=Lrn.usace.army.mil |access-date=August 13, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531161959/http://www.lrn.usace.army.mil/history/dates_in_history.htm |archive-date=May 31, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

The federal government under President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] sent thousands of area WPA workers to the affected cities to aid in rescue and recovery. It also sent supplies for food and temporary housing, and millions of dollars in aid after the floodwaters receded.

The scale of the 1937 flood was so unprecedented that civic and industrial groups lobbied national authorities to create a comprehensive plan for flood control. The plan involved creating more than seventy storage reservoirs to reduce [[Ohio River]] flood heights. Not fully completed by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] until the early 1940s, the new facilities have drastically reduced flood damages since.

In the 1930s, the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] sought to create a continuous minimum 9-foot (2.7 m) channel along the entirety of the [[Tennessee River]] from [[Paducah, Kentucky|Paducah]] to [[Knoxville]]. The Authority also sought to help control flooding on the lower [[Mississippi River]], especially in the aftermath of the Ohio River flood of 1937, as research had shown that 4% of the water in the lower Mississippi River originates in the Tennessee River watershed. TVA surveyed the lower part of the river and considered the Aurora Landing site, but eventually settled on the present site at river mile 22.4. The [[Kentucky Dam]] project was authorized on May 23, 1938, and construction began July 1, 1938.<ref>Tennessee Valley Authority, The Kentucky Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Kentucky Project, Technical Report No. 13 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), pp. 1–12, 68, 115–116, 509.</ref>

Much of the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Tennessee River basin was strongly supported by the majority of the citizens in western [[Kentucky]] and their representatives in the [[United States Congress]]. U.S. Sen. [[Alben W. Barkley]] of Paducah and U.S. Rep. [[William Voris Gregory|William Gregory]] from [[Mayfield, Kentucky|Mayfield]] and his brother U.S. Rep. [[Noble Gregory]] from Mayfield who succeeded him in office strongly supported the funding of TVA and its role in addressing flood control, soil conservation, family relocation, recreation, production of electricity, and economic development.<ref>Kleber, John E., ed (1992). "Tennessee Valley Authority", p.875. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: [[Thomas D. Clark]], Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. [[Lexington, Kentucky]]: The University Press of Kentucky. {{ISBN|0813117720}}.</ref>