"It started raining in (the) beginning of the month and never quit, rained every day," Cincinnati flood survivor Charlie Gribi said.
On Jan. 26, 1937, the Ohio River crested to 80 feet.
"It was a devastating flood," Gribi said.
Flood waters covered much of Cincinnati and left 100,000 people homeless including Gribi and his family, ONN's Lot Tan reported.
Gribi was 14 years old and remembers escaping from his house.
"We were crawling out over the porch roof to get into a boat to get out of the house," Gribi said.
Gribi and his family lost everything they owned, including their home and barn.
"Our clothes were laying there with mud all over it you couldn't clean them up. The clothes that we had on our back is what we had. Red Cross helped, friends helped but we were broke everything was totally gone," Gribi said.
Brian Astifan works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a hydraulic engineer.
Astifan said that advances in technology have helped reduce chances for another great flood.
"Seventy-nine flood control reservoirs were built following the flood of '37," Astifan said. "Accurate information from weather radar, also the way we communicate information about stream gauges made information more reliable compared to 1937."
Astifan said that the chance for a catastrophic flood similar to the one in 1937 is possible.
"I'm almost confident we'll see another major flood won't be as bad as it could have been because of systems we put in place since 1937," Astifan said,"
Good news for flood survivors like Gribi.
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