Flood Scenes in Augusta, Kentucky

not

Main Street, Augusta
(We've seen this credited as
both the 1907 and the 1913 Flood)

1907 Flood in Augusta

Postmarked on April 18, 1907, this one says: “One of our flood pictures taken as the water was still rising. When it went down, this porch was washed away and the house dreadfully damaged. Sixteen logs were in the yard, one in the dining room and one in the kitchen. William Duncan is grand. Lots of love, '57' ”

The 1907 flood in Augusta.

Unknown year, with the Bradford Hotel

East Second Street, 1907

Rowing down the railroad, 1913


We're assuming this is 1913.	This is 1913 on Main Looking toward Front in Augusta.	L. M. Brothers, Livery Stable and Undertaking, 1913


US Bank Building, 1913	West Fourth Street, 1913
both from Facebook posts of the Augusta Kentucky Historic District


April 1, 1913 in Augusta

“Gabler, the photographer, has taken quite a number of views of the flood. They are good pictures and are much sought by the people. These pictures are fine works of art and all should get one to remember the great and destructive flood of 1883, when two-thirds of Augusta was inundated.” from the Bracken Bulletin, February 10, 1883.

If you should happen to have any of these, we'd love to get scans. Contact us here.

1884 Flood
Daily Wabash Express (Terre Haute), February 10, 1884

A San Francisco paper covers the 1884 Ohio River floods, here.		An account of one horrific incident from the 1884 flood is here.
The 1883, the Augusta Bulletin ran this story on the flood in Augusta	In 1883, the Enquirer ran this story about the flood in Augusta.	In 1884, the Enquirer ran this story about the flood in Augusta. And this one.	The 1913 Flood was over the railroad in Augusta. ( In 1937, parts of Fourth Street were covered.)


Main and Third, 1878 Flood That's W. J. Rankin's Store on the left On right, the smoke stack is the flour mill	Main Street Flour Mill on the right	West of City Park, April 1, 1913

The C&O in the 1933 Flood. That train is possibly parked as a means to keep the track from washing away, a common tactic for flooded railroads. On the other hand, they didn't usually park locomotives. From a Facebook post by Augusta Kentucky Historic District.


Upper Street, March 23, 1933,	Augusta School, March 23, 1933	1933	1933, Last Train Out, before the flood rose higher
These two images Courtesy of the Bracken County Historical Society		both from Facebook posts of the Augusta Kentucky Historic District


N. Upper Street, Augusta, March 25, 1936	Augusta, date illegible


Hotel	That's Kroger's on the left	Taylor's Auto's, Chrysler, Plymouth
Augusta, April 24, 1940

Augusta, April 24, 1940


These are from the 1945 flood. While it was the fourth worst flood in Northern Kentucky History (69.2 feet; behind 1937, 1913, and 1884) it gets virtually no recognition as such. We assume most people who had a memory of it also remembered 1937, and dismissed 1945 and every other flood they ever saw again as a minor one, since they had seen '37. For which we will not blame them.

April 20, 1948


The 1950 Flood. From a Facebook post by Augusta Kentucky Historic District.

The Steamer St. Lawrence
beached, below Augusta
More on the St. Lawrence is here.

For more information on the various Northern Kentucky Floods, see the NKY Views Rivers pages, here.