You've probably heard of the Great Flood of 1937 — maybe you even have relatives who lived through it. It was late January, and parts of Louisville, including The Point and the West End, were under water. Residents and business owners in the Highlands and parts of the Central Business District were far luckier.

So, what if it were to happen again? We've certainly learned valuable lessons from the 1937 flood, and we even have something now that we didn't have then: a flood protection system. And that would save us today from catastrophic flood, right?

The honest answer: maybe.

Louisville’s flood protection system is one of the largest in the country, in terms of the number of people it protects. But parts of it are very, very old and in dire need of repairs.

WFPL Energy and Environment reporter Ryan Van Velzer joins us today to tell us the good and bad news about the city's flood protection plan, and we talk about how worried we should really be.