From the desk of Alison Gibson, Director
Hmm, what were you doing 28 years ago this week? It is the ‘anniversary’ of the 1997 flood that crested on March 5th. In Maysville the measurements were 61.2 feet. While a far cry from the 75.6 feet (Maysville) of the 1937 flood, it still had quite an impact on the area. The library was lucky—thanks to Mr. Carnegie’s 1915 demand that the library be built higher than ‘the worst flood’ on record we were built on a manmade mound. We were surrounded by water, but we had only little water in, just required a carpet cleaning and the elevator had to be serviced. Of course, we weren’t sure that was all it was going to be, so there was mass moving of books, furniture and computers to the second floor. Rowing to the library to check on it daily was an interesting experience. What we think was one of the most impactful experiences of the flood was the wonderful community effort for cleanup—even folks not from Ripley came in to help clean up the slick flood mud, help move debris, bring food and try to keep the spirits up. Looking at several of our 1997 photos, it is a little disheartening to see the buildings that are no longer in existence as well as interesting to see changes. The Independent Warehouse and the Bodmer Hotel are gone. Trapp and Wilson building was in better condition, and of course the different business names and color schemes..
Anyway, the picture is a portion of a photo done by Skyhawk Aerial—the water was already receding, but you can still get a sense of the coverage. The postcard era of flood photos seems to have stopped after the 1913 flood, so pictorial history is pretty much dependent on personal pictures as well as newspaper/media coverage.
Feel free to stop in and see the aerial photos—now we have recreational drones to take lots of pictures, but in 1997…not really available. Technology changes daily, but the river will do what it wants!
