There is a passage in your book where you described what it looked like when the river--the Mississippi River--finally subsided back into its banks, and I wonder if you could just read part of that for us. All were closed by the end of August that year, Mouton wrote. Levee guards were placed in camps at strained sites along the top of the levee and ordered to maintain them from danger of crevasse, a break in the levee which would allow water to enter the area it protected. Some people got lost in the flood; some people got away all right. Thousands of tenant farmer shacks had simply disappeared. Daily Advertiser reporter Jim Bradshaw wrote in October 1999 that hundreds of volunteers worked to brace levees along the Atchafalaya River between Port Barre in St. Landry Parish and Henderson in St. Martin Parish. Some people got away alright. My father, J.D. Despite strenuous objections from people living downstream, Governor O. H. Simpson and his advisors acquiesced to a plea from New Orleans civic leaders to blast a breach in the levee. Though New Orleans had been spared, other parts of southern Louisiana were still in trouble, particularly in the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Teche basins to the west of the city. You know, tens of thousands of whom were living on tops of levees, some of which were only eight feet across with the river on one side and the flood on the other. The 1927 flood also helped propel Herbert Hoover to the presidency a year later. Hear poetry from NC's poet laureate. Hundreds of sturdy barns, cotton gins, warehouses and farmhouses had been swept away. Mr. Barry, thank you very much. The Mississippi River remained at flood stage for a record 153 days. Field . It was the only dry ground. What has happened down here, is the winds have changed Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain It rained real hard, and it rained for a real long time Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline The river rose all day, the river rose all night Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright The river had busted . The river rose all day. Until the American Red Cross arrived, families, mostly African-Americans, slept in makeshift tents of quilts and materials brought along in their escape from their homes. SinceHurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans and the parishes to its south, there have been inevitable comparisons between the two disasters. 2023 www.theadvertiser.com. WERTHEIMER: When you think about the scope and scale of the 1927 flood, I wonder why it is that it hasn't passed into the sort of legend that most schoolchildren remember, like--as they do the Chicago fire or the San Francisco earthquake. PHOTOS: Flood damage at Lafayette Parish schools, USA's infamous 'Tornado Alley' may be shifting east. (You can unsubscribe anytime), Courtesy of Center for Louisiana Studies at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. About 81 percent of St. Landry Parish was inundated, while about 67 percent of the land in Iberia and St. Martin parishes going under water. The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. Mocking birds often nested in the arch. User login. River appallingly high, and levees in very precarious condition. One of the great ironies--the great irony of all that is that Greenville, Mississippi, before the flood was easily probably the best city in the South to be a black person. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Here's the latest on Hurricane Katrina. For weeks the river rose, it passed the highest stage ever known before, 52.3/10 feet reached in 1922 , and went up steadily, a foot a day, which, as well as the height, was unprecedented. To read a full account of the flood by Lucy Somerville, click here. It was a strictly political power play. The laborers were not paid and resented being threatened that if they did not participate in the levee repair, or other work such as unloading the food sent on barges by the Red Cross, that they would not be allowed to have the food that the Red Cross was handing out. The Atchafalaya River forks away from the Mississippi River at Simmesport in Avoyelles Parish. LSU Libraries' Technology Initiatives: lsudiglib@lsu.edu. The Oct. 26, 1999, Advertiser included thiseyewitness account ofTurner Catledge, a reporter for the Memphis Commercial Appeal:"The water leaped through the crevasse with such fury that it spread into three distinct currents. 70537. The east and south were protected, or so most people believed, by a railroad embankment. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. They started to evacuate the city and they evacuated the whites, but the planners got together and decided that if they evacuated the black sharecroppers, the labor force for much of the Mississippi delta would disappear and would never return, and so they decided to keep them on the top of the levee and formed a camp for them for--stretched about 11 miles; thousands of people, many animals, and these people became almost slave labor. Also touched upon is the callous response of the federal government, depicted here via a fictional visit from President Calvin Coolidge and "a little fat man," where Coolidge's reaction to the devastation is a detached statement that, "isn't it a shame what the river has done to this poor cracker's land. Jackson was the pharmacist, Edwin H. Myrick,in the 1981 report,recalled. John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 describes the epic disaster. He, with the help of a committee of African-American leaders, got about five hundred Black men working two shifts around the clock for nine days to repair the protection levee. About 15,000 acres, including areas along the Vermilion River, suffered the worst of the flooding in Lafayette, according to reports. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between the North and the South. Residents raced to the railroad embankment, the only remaining high ground, the rescue train stranded and of no help. The 1927 flood demonstrated the government's levees only policy for controlling the Mississippi River was inadequate. 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton In 1927 the Mississippi's floodwaters reached from Illinois and Missouri all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. What the river has done to this poor . The boys rescued the chickens and placed them on a scaffold out of the water. It prevented a second wave of rising water in June and with the aid of large pumps the town was drained. MORE: 4,500 added to flood zones in Lafayette Parish. "Louisiana 1927" is a 1974 song written and recorded by Randy Newman on the album Good Old Boys. The Flood of 1927 inundated nearly 26,000 square miles in 170 counties and parishes in seven states, driving an estimated 931,159 people from their homes. He was in charge of disaster relief for the Coolidge administration. (You can unsubscribe anytime). The federal government did not pay a single penny for the clothing, food or shelter of any one of those 700,000 people. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 And How It Changed America. Massive gates were constructed to allow excess water to be diverted into these areas in times of severe flooding. The majority of the area was originally settled by French Canadian colonists and former colonial marines (coureurs de bois) from such outposts as Fort Toulouse and Fort Kaskaskia and later included 19th-century French-speaking soldiers and immigrant families. Unpublished. It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time. An upstream break, on the other hand, would send a disastrous flood into New Orleans. Aunt Ruby lost her fruit and nut trees, purple plums, peaches and apples along with an English walnut tree which was an oddity of this particular section of the country. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,350. They're tryin' to wash us away. Mizelle, Richard M., Jr. Raining constantly all this morning, none of us slept much. Physical rights are retained by the Center for Louisiana Studies. And another reason, frankly, may be a certain intellectual prejudice. Thousands were left homeless for weeks, even months. The per capita income for the parish was $11,432. The Pentagon says an additional 10,000 National Guard troops will be going there and to Mississippi. To find the contact who can help you, find the field called "Contact Information" next to the image of interest to you. Whole communities, such as Bayou Chne, built upon a ridge in the Atchafalaya River basin, had to be abandoned because they were in the path of the floodwaters that might be diverted. As the waters receded people drifted back to their homes to clean up and continue their lives where they left off. He joins us now from his office in Washington. They reneged on all their promises, written promises; they controlled the state Supreme Court, so the lawsuits against them went nowhere. You know, history was largely written back in the '20s, I think, by people who looked askance at the South because of the blatant racism, and they really didn't care that much about what happened in the area that was most severely hit, which was Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. "We thought it was a cattle stampede. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. Photoshop 7 and CS, Epson Perfection Scanner 1200U, 3170, 4890, Macintosh G5, University of Louisiana at Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies. 4,500 added to flood zones in Lafayette Parish, What you should know about hurricanes, heavy rain and flood insurance, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Parishes set up rehabilitation committees to find food and shelter for the displaced families. The crevasse was so huge it allowed a volume of raging water that covered nearly one million acres with water ten feet deep in ten days. A new break appeared in the Bayou Rouge levee in Avoyelles Parish on May 14, and a levee on Bayou Courtableau between Port Barre and Washington in St. Landry Parish failed the same day. Mr. BARRY: Well, it's a good question. While her mother did laundry, boiling clothes in a black pot in the yard, the children played in the yard "when we noticed water running down the road ditches," she said. WERTHEIMER: Mr. Barry, clearly, we're looking at incredible devastation in photographs of New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines: shattered homes, piles of debris that are completely unrecognizable as whatever they once were. The flood killed the hedges and they had to be removed.. Most of the refugees went to stay with relatives. I have observed that when the river is high it is always raining. One-Year subscription (4 issues) : $20.00, Two-Year subscription (8 issues) : $35.00, 64 Parishes 2023. Typhoid shots and other immunizations were given to prevent the spread of disease. Renee Montagne talks to Newman about Louisiana 1927. All rights reserved. Local and state agencies did what they could to shore up levees along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers and adjoining waterways from Richland Parish south to St. Landry Parish. The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines. WERTHEIMER: Were there any prominent politicians who vanished without a trace because of the way they handled the flood? Overview. Thousands of tenant farmer shacks had simply disappeared. Lanterns on the Levee. Could you tell us about that? ", A second current traveled north, eroding a section of the railroad embankment, "allowing the water to go up into the town proper and completely inundate it," Catledge wrote. : PI/CI/G74.4, no. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is composed of collections from many different institutions. On May 20, just before the levee break at McCrea, Louisiana, 35,000 people fled from the fragile levee . Resident Ray Griffin, who was 76 in 1981, recalled the way everyone pitched in to fill and place sandbags around the city. As heavy rains continued in the Mississippi River drainage area above Louisiana, more than 20,000 men were put to work sandbagging levees between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Could you tell us about that? Mr. BARRY: That's correct. All had been promised full compensation for their losses, but the lucky ones would get an average of only $274 each, and thousands of them would get nothing. They're tryin' to wash us away. One force shot straight west, wrecking houses, barns and fences as it went. The Louisiana Digital Library platform has been developed by LSU Libraries on behalf of the Louisiana Digital Consortium. While these levees prevented flooding for a period, they proved unable to withstand the floodwaters of 1927. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Then, on Good Friday, April 15, 1927, more than 14 inches of rain fell on New Orleans in a single day, disabling the pumps that normally drained the city. Snead, J., P. V. Heinrich, and R. P. McCulloh, 2002, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 14:35. The racial makeup of the parish was 70.42% White, 28.57% Black or African American, 0.23% Native American, 0.14% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.18% from other races, and 0.46% from two or more races. One-Year subscription (4 issues) : $20.00 . That music inspired Lauren Ashlee Messina's dance-based piece "Louisiana Flood Stories: 1927," which runs at the Contemporary Arts Center on July 8-9. Their intention, apparently, was to lower the level of the river and to save the city of New Orleans. A weather system that stalled over the Midwestern states in the fall of 1926 brought untold amounts of water to the Upper Mississippi River region. I think perhaps the most important impact the flood had we haven't discussed. That flood dumped as much as 30 feet of water on land from Illinois and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. The National Safety Council estimated deaths in the Yazoo- Mississippi Delta alone at 1,000. Search terms . 91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount In December, heavy rains in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and northern Louisiana filled the Arkansas and Red Rivers. Was he a good manager of this 1927 flood relief effort? Smaller levees had begun to break in northern and central Louisiana in mid-May, but a disastrous break in the Atchafalaya River levee came on May 17 at Melville in St. Landry Parish. The community is located at the junction of Louisiana Highways 97 and 100, 5.9 miles (9.5 km) east-northeast of Jennings. Hundreds of sturdy barns, cotton gins, warehouses and farmhouses had been swept away. 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines, PublishedSeptember 3, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT. Copyright laws. . He was in charge of disaster relief for the Coolidge administration. Sung from the perspective of a nameless resident of the area recounting the flooding of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes during the flood, "Louisiana 1927" features lyrics that depict the devastation of the residents of those parishes in the aftermath of the flood. "With one mighty rush the water engulfed a hotel building, ripping it from its foundation and tossing it aside to strike residences adjoining," the report continued. The flood caused more than $400 million in losses; 92,431 businesses were damaged and 162,017 homes flooded. Why don't more people know about this? The early generations were born in colonial French colonies, which included the enormous Louisiana territory ('Upper and Lower' Louisiana) known as "la Nouvelle France", and later were born under Spanish rule. [3] The majority of the area was originally settled by French Canadian colonists and former colonial marines (coureurs de bois) from such outposts as Fort Toulouse and Fort Kaskaskia and later included 19th-century French-speaking soldiers and immigrant families. Most settled for pennies on the dollar, and practically all of them remembered that it was a man-made catastrophe that put them where they were. Downtown West Monroe wasn't as fortunate as backwater from the Ouachita River flooded that area. Article continues after advertisement Randy Newman, "Louisiana 1927." . Mr. BARRY: That's correct. Thelma Sturgeon Smith from Alto in Richland Parish, recalled in 1981 that her family was living in Franklin Parish southwest of Winnsboro near the Oak Grove Baptist Church in May of 1927. When the waters of the Great Flood of 1927 receded, officials estimate some 26,000 square miles across seven states were flooded;700,000 people left their homes and 250-500 people lost their lives. Everybody in a bad humor except Jane, the cook. The flood inundated Arnaudville at the St. LandrySt. How? Mr. BARRY: Yeah, that's correct, and the idea is very comparable to simply pulling the plug out of the bathtub. WERTHEIMER: John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America." The water rose quickly, extinguishing the fire under the black pot and before long, there wasn't a dry spot in the yard. The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines. Ewing, Inc. (Baton Rouge, La.) In 1927 the Mississippi's floodwaters reached from Illinois and Missouri all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Instead, the levees held the rainwater inside the city. : PI/ 1992.0002.039, The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station in Helm, Mississippi, on April 29, 1927. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. "The Methodist Church did not operate a troop again until the organization of the present Troop 12 in July 1934, under the leadership of the Rev. Legal Notices, Downtown Greenville, Mississippi, on April 30, 1927, six days after the levee break. Greenvilles William Alexander Percy, son of LeRoy Percy, headed the Relief Committee in Greenville. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover who was elected president the following year visited St. Martinville, warning people to prepare for the flood while those in Breaux Bridge and other communities along Bayou Teche were anxious as the weather service predicted inundation from the raging waters, The Advertiser reported on May 20, 1927. Thanks for your interest in the Louisiana Digital Library. About 27.20% of families and 32.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 39.10% of those under age 18 and 31.00% of those age 65 or over. The Lucy Somerville Howorth Collection, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, Mississippi. They started to evacuate the city and they evacuated the whites, but the planners got together and decided that if they evacuated the black sharecroppers, the labor force for much of the Mississippi delta would disappear and would never return, and so they decided to keep them on the top of the levee and formed a camp for them for--stretched about 11 miles; thousands of people, many animals, and these people became almost slave labor. "Louisiana 1927" is on the brilliant 1974 album Good Old Boys that tells a narrative of people in the south who feel like the rest of the country is laughing at them. WERTHEIMER: Mr. Barry, clearly, we're looking at incredible devastation in photographs of New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines: shattered homes, piles of debris that are completely unrecognizable as whatever they once were. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. The air is saturated with moisture, and the luxuriance of plant growth is extraordinary. With a sea of water in the commercial and residential areas of downtown Greenville, the town resembled Venice, Italy, with its canals. Meet NPR hosts and reporters.
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