High Water, April 26, 1937, Falmouth, VA
Posted by: 
garmin_geek
N 38° 19.389 W 077° 28.168
18S E 284126 N 4244555
Rappahannock River water level marker for the April 26, 1937 flood.
Waymark Code: WM5XGE
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 02/25/2009
Views: 14
April 1937: Just one year after the record flood of March 1936, another major flood struck Virginia. Heavy rains caused widespread flooding over all but southwest Virginia. The Rappahannock Basin was hit hardest. Fredericksburg saw its worst flood since 1889 when the river swelled to 30 feet above normal. Three bridge spans were lost, home in low areas were partially submerged and a score of gasoline storage tanks were swept away. Four young Culpeper residents died in Madison County when their car plunged off a bridge at Locust Dale into the Robinson River. The approach to the bridge had been washed away by the flood waters. Another person was lost in Amelia County when their car dropped into the river where a bridge approach was washed out. A sixth person was drowned when a roadway over a dam collapsed. Flooding on the Potomac was not as bad as the previous year, yet the river reached 14.3 feet at Wisconsin avenue and portions of Alexandria and Arlington again flooded. Total damages to roads and bridges in Virginia came to nearly a half a million dollars. Agricultural losses came to over a million dollars in Northern Virginia alone.
A Sometimes Rowdy River
The Rappahannock brings us fish and water and is a great recreation center, but it has brought floods to the city as well.
Hurricane Agnes blew in on June 21, 1972 and brought the second worst flood in Fredericksburg's history. The water level was 39.1 feet above normal, and President Nixon declared Fredericksburg a disaster area. Hurricane Fran (Sept. 6, 1996) was our fifth worst flood since 1889. On April 26, 1937, the water level rose 39.1 feet above its normal level. This flood destroyed the steel Free Bridge. Its modern replacement is called the Chatham Bridge.
The worst flood happened on Oct. 15-16, 1942. Fifteen hundred people were evacuated. The water level was 44 feet above normal and the river rose as much as three feet an hour. Four tanks with thousands of gallons of gasoline exploded during the flood. Water supplies were non-existent for a couple of days. About 6,000 of Fredericksburg's 10,000 residents reported to the courthouse for typhoid immunizations.
Oral histories of many Fredericksburg citizens tell of the Fredericksburg flood of 1942. These histories and other information on file may be found in the Virginiana Room of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.Visit Link