The weather report in the upper left corner on the front page of the Wheeling News-Register<\/em> was a little concerning, but certainly not dire. Not yet.<\/p>\n \u201cHOURS OF RAIN Silver linings.<\/p>\n But things would get worse \u2014 hourly.<\/p>\n By St. Patrick\u2019s Day, the Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em> noted that over an inch of rain had already fallen, and the temperature was dropping. By 9 AM that day, WWVA Radio had received its first high water warning from Pittsburgh with the prediction of water an alarming six feet above the 36 foot flood stage due to slam the town just two days later on Thursday, March 19. Moreover, it had been a severe winter along along the east coast. A combination of melting snow and ice combined with heavier than expected rain had bloated the Pittsburgh region\u2019s three rivers to unforeseen levels.<\/p>\n The radio station would later publish a \u201cFlood Souvenir\u201d<\/a> that summed up the unprecedented result: \u201cAn avalanche of water poured into the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, which in turn emptied their swollen, raging torrents into the Ohio River.\u201d<\/p>\n Wheeling, of course, was no stranger to massive Ohio River floods, its citizens having muddled through 52 feet in 1884, 51 in 1913, and 50 in 1907. But the 1936 flood was a behemoth from a different flood universe.<\/p>\n The river would crest at 2 PM on March 19 at an astounding 19.5 feet above flood stage \u2014 55.5 feet at Wheeling \u2014 inundating the entire city like never before, nor since, with floodwater covering more than 8 square miles: drowning the Island, much of South and Centre Wheeling, and downtown streets as far east as Chapline. Many houses and businesses were submerged up to their rooftops, trees were uprooted, joining menacing chunks of all manner of debris, propelled through the swift currents like juggernauts, roads and vehicles rendered unusable, with millions of dollars in damage done.<\/p>\n The Suspension Bridge and Steel Bridge were closed, and the Market Auditorium was converted to Red Cross headquarters, as well as a relief shelter and makeshift hospital. Utilities were shut down, supplies cut off, and diseases like typhoid threatened. Warwood and \u201cOut the Pike\u201d were cutoff from the business district. Hundreds of people were trapped in their homes, many without food or clean water or heat or electricity or phone service. More than 20,000 people were eventually driven from their homes, many rescued from rooftops by rowboats and other small watercraft able to negotiate the flooded streets. Seventeen people lost their lives. In fact, the flood pummeled the entire Upper Ohio Valley from Steubenville to New Martinsville and beyond. (See The Big One<\/a>)<\/p>\n In Pittsburgh, where it is known as the \u201cGreat St. Patrick\u2019s Day Flood,\u201d 45 people were killed. And from New England to Washington, D.C. a great flood simultaneously hit the Potomac River, killing as many as 200.<\/p>\n The Ohio Valley was devastated. But heroes emerged. Many of them were facilitated by the teamwork of the Wheeling Chapter of the American Red Cross and WWVA Radio, whose 92.5 hours of continuous broadcasting during the darkest hours provided a beacon of hope and a touchstone for critical information no longer available from usually reliable sources like the newspapers. The News-Register\u2019s<\/em> offices, for example, were flooded, forcing staff to abandon equipment for higher ground at their offices on 1500 Main Street. The intrepid reporters used a small proof press to hand-set a crude but effective \u201cflood edition handbill\u201d<\/a> for March 19. But it was difficult to if not impossible to disseminate, and the paper would not return to regular production until Saturday, March 21.<\/p>\n Further complicating matters, in 1936, less than half of US homes had a working telephone, and the raging waters had downed most of the poles and overworked lines in any event. So radios became the most effective way to receive word about what was happening, to communicate messages to others, to try to locate or check on loved ones, and to organize donations and volunteers.<\/p>\n And WWVA, the self-proclaimed \u201cFriendly Voice Out of the Hills of West Virginia,\u201d was the station that stayed on the air through it all.<\/p>\n As Rev. Frederick W. Cropp, Co-Chairman of the Disaster Committee, Wheeling Chapter of the American Red Cross wrote in a letter to the editor of the New York Times<\/em> newspaper dated March 28, 1936:<\/p>\n \u201cThe part played by the radio station WWVA in its ninety-two and one-half hours of continuous broadcasting is inestimable. With other forms of communication crippled by the rising demand or completely destroyed, the police, the Red Cross and other relief agencies sent out appeals for food, for volunteers and for other supplies of emergency nature. Over $50,000 was raised as a result of this Radio appeal. Food and the necessary supplies were rolling into Wheeling before the flood waters abated, wild rumors were crushed before they could spread their insidious work and the whole tri-state area was knit together in one common crisis.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Joining production manager Paul J. Miller, program director Walter Patterson, and announcers Carl W. Gustky, Paul Myers, Murrell Poor and Wayne A. Sanders, not to forget the numerous engineers who kept things running (including their own telephone lines along with portable transmitters), was Rev. Frederick W. Cropp himself. Amid periodic announcements and uplifting music by performers like Marybelle Dague, Capitol and Jamboree organist Vivian Miller, and Tex Harrison\u2019s Texas Buckaroos, Rev. Cropp would read on air, often from his remote microphone on the Steel Bridge, letters, notes, and telegrams from listeners searching for loved ones, people letting loved ones know they were OK, pleas for donations or help, and other vital information to help listeners get through the disaster. One on-air announcement, for example, warned \u201cDon\u2019t Drive to Town just to see the flood. Don\u2019t come to the Hawley Bldg. Telephone Red Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n When WWVA later published its memoir of the event, 1936 WHEELING FLOOD SOUVENIR\u00a0<\/a>, the letters and notes were the missing component, the only one that could convincingly convey some measure of the fear and anxiety as well as the courage and self-sacrifice that characterized the 1936 flood in the Ohio Valley.<\/p>\n Fortunately for us, and for posterity, more than 100 of the letters<\/a> and notes (part 1<\/a>, part 2<\/a>, and part 3<\/a>) read by Rev. Cropp during those fateful days in 1936 are now housed in the Ohio County Public Library\u2019s Archive as a part of the Capitol Theatre Collection of WWVA and Jamboree USA memorabilia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many are now also part of an exhibit for a limited time in the main exhibit area of the Library, where you can view images, read the letters, and her them read by Library staff. Don\u2019t miss the \u201cLifeline\u201d exhibit, part of the main Capitol Theatre and WWVA exhibit, now at the Ohio County Public Library.<\/p>\n The letters and notes can also be viewed virtually in a slideshow below, or as a PDF, HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Reading through the Red Cross and WWVA letters is an experience evocative of seeing the posters and flyers taped and stapled to walls and fences that showed up in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy and similar events, some typed, many handwritten and homemade, with photos and drawings of the missing and language such as \u201cPlease, have you seen. . .\u201d<\/p>\n In a manner foreshadowing these modern, spontaneous shrines of desperation and hope, Wheeling and the Ohio Valley used the only reliable communication method available to them under the circumstances \u2014 the radio \u2014 to reach out to the missing, the alone, and the terrified.<\/p>\n One such letter came from Virginia Rowell of Cleveland, OH, who said she was \u201cterrible worried\u201d about her family members in Wheeling and Wellsburg, and that she would be \u201clistening over the air for an answer.\u201d Meanwhile, a telegram from Pittsburgh asked for an update on Henry Lane, his wife and four children who were said to be \u201cin critical condition on account of the flood.\u201d Another message marked \u201cUrgent\u201d described George Parks, \u201cage 11. Curly reddish hair. Weighed 80 lbs. Missing since Wed night. Last see on 15th St.\u201d<\/p>\n Another aspect of these messages is the hope and unity they convey. As with 9\/11 and other national tragedies when scout groups were holding bake sales to benefit the victims\u2019 families, the Ohio Valley rallied to help its flood victims. A letter in shaky handwriting from a widow named Mrs. Adda Jones, for example, who said she had been an invalid for 2 years, nevertheless sent in a \u201csmall donation for the flood sufferers,\u201d while expressing her wish that it could have been more. In another touching letter, Earl Phillips, a self-described \u201cpoor farmer,\u201d unable to \u201cgive any help on account of sickness,\u201d sent two coats \u201cto try to make somebody warm.\u201d He also asked to hear if his two daughters and their families were safe in Proctor, WV. A letter writer from New Philadelphia, OH offered to open her home to care for \u201ctwo or three worthy children\u201d if the police would bring them out. A woman from Short Creek sent clothes that once belonged to her \u201cown dear little girl who slipped away 5 years ago.\u201d The United Mine Workers of the Wheeling district sent a large truckload of food and clothing while Dr. K.A. Rosenberg offered his services to the people of Wheeling Island: \u201cJust get in touch with him and he will come to any flood sufferers.\u201d In Powhatan, a pumper fire truck was urgently called for to remove mud from the streets as \u201ctyphoid is menacing this town.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes the news was good: \u201cMrs. Emolyn Fisher is safe at grandmas.\u201d But not all ended well. \u201cFlash\u2013the man at Alley 1-13,\u201d reads one typed note, \u201cwas dead when Dr. Gilmore arrived. His name was Jack O\u2019Neill.\u201d<\/p>\n In another note, Rev. Cropp or one of the other announcers struggled with the words to open the broadcast: \u201cRed Cross flag flying over sleeping children and women. ..Angle 2\u2013 City of Wheeling separated by water tonight. Fulton. South. Island. Warwood. Pike. NO OTHER DIVISION TONIGHT. United in community spirit. Wish you could see the groups working together.\u201d<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, much as many of the haunting 9\/11 posters are now housed at the 9\/11 Memorial Museum in NYC, a large number of the letters and notes read by Rev. Cropp during those fateful days in 1936 are now housed in the Ohio County Public Library\u2019s Archive.<\/p>\n
\nThis city has had a five hour rain starting at eleven o\u2019clock last night with a pourdown [sic] for several hours. Streets were given a much needed washing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Page-1-of-Wheeling-Intelligencerpublished-in-Wheeling-West-Virginia-on-Wednesday-March-18th-1936.jpg?ssl=1\")
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\n92 & 1\/2 Hours<\/h2>\n
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\nLive from the Steel Bridge<\/h2>\n
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\nShrines of Desperation and Hope<\/h2>\n
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Photo by Lauren Hobart\/FEMA News Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n