Eighty-eight years ago today, January 27, 1937 (December 15, 1936), the United States suffered severe flooding, leaving 1 million homeless. Towns in the water On January 27, 1937, the worst floods in the history of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers had left nearly 1 million people homeless, with hundreds dead, and the number was feared to rise. Louisville-Natti and several other cities were still flooded, and army engineers had drawn up plans to evacuate 500,000 residents along the Mississippi River between Cairo, Illinois, and the Gulf of Mexico. Damage from the floods was estimated to exceed $400 million. Cary Grayson, president of the American International Committee of the Red Cross, called it "the most urgent situation facing this country and the International Committee of the Red Cross since the war."