Officials on May 18urged evacuation of a large area that included Port Barre, Leonville, Breaux Bridge and Arnaudville. He said "I was born in Los Angeles, but I went to New Orleans when I was, like, a week old. 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. John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood and How It Changed America." And the American people did not accept this. The levees were not breached; river water did not rush in. Photoshop 7 and CS, Epson Perfection Scanner 1200U, 3170, 4890, Macintosh G5, University of Louisiana at Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies. The author and her sister, Rosalie, helped their mother dig up some of her favorite plants so they wouldn't die in the flood. All Rights Reserved. All rights reserved. B.H. The threat continued to worsen, however, and state government officials believed the levees would inevitably break. Refugees had to file a claim to receive compensation under a complicated system that divided payments into various categories, provided that no partial payments could be made, and without legal representation. The National Safety Council estimated deaths in the Yazoo- Mississippi Delta alone at 1,000. As the water rose on the levee, it was the levee guards duty to fill sandbags and place them on top of the levee in order to stay ahead of the water height. Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 33,984 people living in the parish. The prelude to the flood began in August 1926, when rainstorms began to swell streams in eastern Kansas, northwestern Iowa, and part of Illinois, all of which fed into the Mississippi River. It was not until June that the floodwaters began to drain into the Gulf of Mexico. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Jim Bradshaw wrote in "Great Flood of 1927" for Know Louisiana, wrote, "the Red Cross provided seed, tools, and rations to farm families facing the daunting task of surviving the winter and starting a new crop in the spring. WERTHEIMER: And some of them were evacuated, but not everybody. : PI/1992.0002.020, Intersection of Washington and Shelby streets in downtown Greenville. Louisiana, Louisiana. Kid that I was, I yelled when I heard the fire whistle, Hotdog! I think one is that it was so big and covered so wide an area, it was a little bit like a dog trying to bite a basketball. The Louisiana Digital Library platform has been developed by LSU Libraries on behalf of the Louisiana Digital Consortium. This troop was known as Troop 1 until 1924, the year Evangeline Area Council was established, and in that year it was gived the number 27. I have, you know, only speculative answers. 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. Some people got lost in the flood; some people got away all right. ebrpl . As heavy rainfall in 1926 continued into the spring of 1927, the Mississippi River began cresting in places like Cairo, Illinois, sending tons of water rushing southto Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Photograph of the Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. 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. Courtesy of Center for Louisiana Studies at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. Volunteers from Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), Maurice, Youngsville and Lafayette joined efforts to beef up levees that protected Acadiana, he wrote. Her grandfather, the Rev. All Rights Reserved. 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. The Red Cross, he said, had chartered a steam boat from Standard Oil Company, where he worked, to evacuate people along with convicts from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. On May 20, just before the levee break at McCrea, Louisiana, 35,000 people fled from the fragile levee . Readers may wish to read a previous Mississippi History Now article on the Mississippi River: "Making the Mississippi Over Again: The Development of River Control in Mississippi," by Greg O'Brien. 1.04% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Nearly a million people were homeless. The community is located at the junction of Louisiana Highways 97 and 100, 5.9 miles (9.5 km) east-northeast of Jennings. The refugees were caught between a system of legalities they did not understand and marshes still filled with water that kept them from going home. Adding to their anger, a natural breach of the levees subsequently eased pressure on the New Orleans levee; the blasting had been unnecessary. 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. hnoc . Field . 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. "She said, 'Run and go on the levee,'" she recalled, adding she "jumped out the bed in my night clothes," forgetting her favorite doll which was recovered later in the mud. Yarborough, was one of those whose store was threatened." By the end of January, major tributaries such as the Ohio River were overflowing their banks. Engineers chose a westward loop in the river at Caernarvon and began blowing the levee apart on April 29. Some people got away all right. A new recording of the orchestrated version is included on the Katrina charity album, Our New Orleans, on Nonesuch Records. It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time. One force shot straight west, wrecking houses, barns and fences as it went. : PI/1992.0002.071, People get around in boats at the railroad station in Cary, Mississippi, on May 1, 1927, ten days after the flood. The federal government did not pay a single penny for the clothing, food or shelter of any one of those 700,000 people. The flood caused more than $400 million in losses; 92,431 businesses were damaged and 162,017 homes flooded. Mr. BARRY: Well, Coolidge chose not to run for re-election, but that was independent of a flood decision. The river rose all day and the river rose all night. "By the time we got to the levee, we were wading in water. Those who had no place to go were brought to a warehouse in New Orleans. Nobody seemed to step back, at least then, and really looked at the whole thing. The devastating Mississippi River flood of 1927 has deservedly entered the realm of legend and lore, being one of the most costly natural disasters in American history. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. 2.3% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). 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. By the next day, most of Port Barre was under about 6 feet of water and on May 20, the bridge over Bayou Fuselier at Arnaudville collapsed right after refugees from the flood had crossed it, The Advertiser reported. Used by permission of Dr. Ted Shepherd. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. ", In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, NPR interviewed Newman about the song. 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. The financial leaders from New Orleans estimated that claims against a fund set up to compensate the victims would be between $2 million and $6 million. A black and white reproduction of a photograph of a boat with a barber chair in Melville, Louisiana, during the great flood of 1927. 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. Join us for this ride! Part of that was because nobody realized how much would be washed away. Quiz yourself on Black history. With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand. New Orleans received 11.16 inches of rain in Februarycompared to an average of 4.4 inches for the monthand steady rainfalls thereafter. President Bush announced this morning that an additional 7,000 federal troops will be sent to Louisiana to help with relief efforts. 16 Yesterday and last night were somewhat memorable. WERTHEIMER: Were there any prominent politicians who vanished without a trace because of the way they handled the flood? In some places, great mounds of sand covered fields and streets. Residents raced to the railroad embankment, the only remaining high ground, the rescue train stranded and of no help. When the water finally subsided, the Red Cross provided seed, tools, and rations to farm families facing the daunting task of surviving the winter and starting a new crop in the spring. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.19. When James H. Wilkerson, who was 8 at the time, got word that the levee near Rayville broke and the water was heading his way, he and other neighborhood children went to the woods to see for themselves, he wrote in the1981 News-Star-World report. And in fact, he managed to deliver aid without airplanes faster than aid has gotten to New Orleans in the Gulf Coast today. . It filled the air with stench, and in the sun it laid baking and cracking like broken pottery, dung-colored and unvarying to the horizon.'. Parrish, Susan Scott. "Louisiana 1927" is a 1974 song written and recorded by Randy Newman on the album Good Old Boys. "We stretched those bags from Grayling Lane down South Grand to Oxen Dam," he recalled. The Bonnet Carre Spillway was the first diversion structure built in Louisiana as a result of the 1927 flood. Washtubs, work benches, household furniture, chickens and domestic animals went floating by.". The people as a whole were confident the town would not get any water even should the levee break. An entire crop year was lost. PHOTOS: Flood damage at Lafayette Parish schools, USA's infamous 'Tornado Alley' may be shifting east. River appallingly high, and levees in very precarious condition. The song also appeared in an episode (S03E7) of HBO's show Treme, sung again by Aaron Neville. Thus, the people struggling to live on a sliver of ground above water, became aggravated about their circumstances. 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. 25.71% reported speaking French or Cajun French at home, the highest percentage of any Louisiana parish.[13]. More than 10 inches fell. 69.0% were White, 28.3% Black or African American, 0.3% Asian, 0.3% Native American, 1.0% of some other race and 1.1% of two or more races. Greenvilles William Alexander Percy, son of LeRoy Percy, headed the Relief Committee in Greenville. He immediately went to work on plans to build a mud box with driven pilings and sandbags to seal the gaps. Too dark to write, another big storm coming noon. Lanterns on the Levee. John M. Barry's book describes a natural disaster that has faded a bit in the national memory. A few have crops already growing, and cane and corn are making a brave attempt to put forth fruit despite the late start given them.. Steamboats carried many of the white wives and young children away to Vicksburg or Memphis. They're tryin' to wash us away. Members include public libraries, academic libraries, museums, and archives from arcross the state. I think one is that it was so big and covered so wide an area, it was a little bit like a dog trying to bite a basketball. Contact John Sharp (John.Sharp@Louisiana.Edu) for more information about use and reproduction. New Orleans-based singer/pianist Marcia Ball also covered the song at several Katrina benefit concerts. LSU Libraries' Technology Initiatives: lsudiglib@lsu.edu. The steady rainfall filled streams, bayous, creeks, and ditches in the Delta region and saturated the farmland. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between the North and the South. : PI/ 1992.0002.039, The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station in Helm, Mississippi, on April 29, 1927. The water, higher and stronger than any previous flood, soon engulfed a large portion of the Mississippi Delta, covering some two million acres of land in its final reach. The water is now at the top of the levee, and we have heavy showers and torrential downpours almost everyday and night. Photograph of map by Princella W. Nowell. 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. Mr. BARRY: OK. (Reading) `In the entire flooded region, 50 percent of all animals--half of all the mules, horses, cattle, hogs and chickens--had drowned. It was a strictly political power play. McCain, William D. The Triumph of Democracy 1916-1932 in A History of Mississippi, Volume Two, edited by Richard Aubrey McLemore. WERTHEIMER: Herbert Hoover was President Coolidge's secretary of Commerce in 1927, so he was the man in charge of rescue operations. Frank M. Yarborough, who lived with them, "gathered up the few chickens left in the yard and put them in a coop on one end of the porch. The song is written in the style of a lament, and is performed at a slow tempo. 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. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1973. It tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Louisiana and Mississippi. 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. Some people got lost in the flood; some people got away all right. "Tent cities sprung up overnight at the Lafayette fairgrounds, now the municipal golf," and at Holy Rosary Institute,he wrote. Ville Platte, Louisiana, the seat of Evangeline Parish, was itself so named by one of Napoleon Bonaparte's former soldiers, Adjutant Major Marcellin Garand (1781-1852), of Savoy, France. 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. It rained in torrents and almost without intermission for nearly 48 hours. about 500. Thousands were left homeless for weeks, even months. Mama stood on the steps and agreed to let him wade on the front walk. Overview. Louisiana, Louisiana. He used a boat to carry goods from the store to their house, which was on higher ground. A black and white reproduction of a photograph of a boat with a barber chair in Melville, Louisiana, during the great flood of 1927. In addition, a stingy fiscal policy that offered little aid to the flood victims, implemented under Republican President Calvin Coolidge, drove many African Americans from the party of Lincoln into the Democratic party, where they continue to be a considerable part of the constituency today. The 1927 flood also helped propel Herbert Hoover to the presidency a year later. After Hurricane Katrina, one Randy Newman song was played often. Mizelle, Richard M., Jr. 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. "Striking swiftly in the early hours of the morning, the gorged Atchafalaya tore aside levee barriers and turned its full force on (Melville) today, driving residents from their homes into the streets, attired in their night clothing," The Daily Advertiser reported May 17, 1927. She would feed the cow and milk her and we would all come back by boat.". Search within institutions . Our side of the street featured a hedge beginning at MP&L Co. corner and continuing to the corner of Clay and included Uncle Clarences and Aunt Rubys property. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. 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. Center for Louisiana Studies Archive; Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. One of the worst natural disasters to occur in the U.S., this . It runs on the Islandora open-source digital repository software. "A third current struck from the south. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. Copyright laws. 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. 91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount The cost of the damage has been estimated to be between $246 million and $1 billion, $4.2-$17. All were closed by the end of August that year, Mouton wrote. Some people got lost in flood, some people got away alright The river had busted through clear down to Plaquemine Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline Louisiana Why don't more people know about this? 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 Louisiana Digital Library is a service provider only and has no authority to grant permission to publish or supply high-resolution images. Some people got lost in the flood. 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. I think perhaps the most important impact the flood had we haven't discussed. [11], As of the census[12] of 2000, there were 35,434 people, 12,736 households, and 9,157 families living in the parish. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. As the people of Greenville watched the river rise they waited for the fire alarm. You never know where WUNC's events will take you. The median age was 34 years. It tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Louisiana and Mississippi. My father, J.D. Could you tell us about that? The teenager Mildred Shepherd, whose father was an auditor for Mississippi Power & Light Company in Greenville, remained with her family at home throughout the flood with water at the top of their doorsteps. The president say, "little fat man isn't it a shame. Henry Waring Ball Diary, Mississippi Department of Archives and History Mildred Shepherd [Rushing] Diary, Shepherd-Baird family history book written by Mildred Shepherd Rushing. Area code. Males had a median income of $30,386 versus $16,793 for females. Bonnes Nouvelles: good news about people, places and things in Evangeline Parish. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. And that was because of the elite, aristocratic planter class, who did feel a certain noblesse oblige toward their sharecroppers, but they didn't let that interfere with a fairly ruthless sense of dollars. The event, called simply the Great Flood of 1927, would change Louisiana forever. While these levees prevented flooding for a period, they proved unable to withstand the floodwaters of 1927. The boys rescued the chickens and placed them on a scaffold out of the water. Adding to the excitement was a man on horseback going pell-mell down the street yelling, Go to the levee! (See Ville Platte Gazette, Sept. 2010) In 19th-century American literature, she would gain popularity through Hollywood's interest, and thus began the embryonic 'Acadian-based' tourism which sprang up in St. Martinville. Both calamities caused widespread dislocation of Black people, the first adding to a migration to the major urban cities of the north, the second to cities such as Houston and Atlanta. This would give the flood a shortcut to the sea and drop the river level at New Orleans, at the cost of flooding further south. Thousands of tenant farmer shacks had simply disappeared. "Seeing the dirty brown water snaking through the grass and palmettos was sufficient to make cold chills run up and down one's spine," he said. "The fire whistle and the Standard Oil plant shrieked a warning as levee guards sped through the streets, firing pistols and rifles and shouting 'crevasse, crevasse.'". 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. 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. Resident Ray Griffin, who was 76 in 1981, recalled the way everyone pitched in to fill and place sandbags around the city. Much of Lafayette remained dry. He was in charge of disaster relief for the Coolidge administration. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,350. In 1927 the Mississippi's floodwaters reached from Illinois and Missouri all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood and How It Changed America." Mr. Barry, thank you very much. Mocking birds often nested in the arch. (You can unsubscribe anytime), Courtesy of Center for Louisiana Studies at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. The event, called simply the Great Flood of 1927, would change Louisiana forever. They promised reparations to the people they flooded out, and they stiffed them. "Louisiana 1927" is a 1974 song written and recorded by Randy Newman on the album Good Old Boys. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 680 square miles (1,800km2), of which 662 square miles (1,710km2) is land and 17 square miles (44km2) (2.5%) is water.[4]. That flood dumped as much as 30 feet of water on land from Illinois and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. Typhoid shots and other immunizations were given to prevent the spread of disease. They're tryin' to wash . The levees there were under pressure from both sides, and concerned citizens began to buy boats and stockpile food. Some prominent English surnames include Chapman, Kershaw, Young, Reed, Langley, Tate and Buller. Mr. BARRY: OK. (Reading) `In the entire flooded region, 50 percent of all animals--half of all the mules, horses, cattle, hogs and chickens--had drowned. 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. Clouds rolled in from the north and it started to rain. 'Organization Mississippi Flood 1927, May 16, 1927, Hoover Papers. A State Divided: HB2 And Transgender Rights, Committee on Inclusion Diversity Equity Accountability, WUNC Public Radio, LLC Board of Directors, FDIC weighs changing the deposit insurance system after another bank failure, Here's what happens if Hollywood writers go on strike, Navigating the housing market when it's unclear when it will improve, Saving endangered bunnies from floods in California, Supreme Court needs a code of conduct, says judicial ethics expert, AI could help reduce military suicides, nonprofit hopes. The Mississippi River remained at flood stage for a record 153 days. 543191 [1] Evangeline is an unincorporated community in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States. In Mississippi it directly affected an estimated population of 185,495. Accuracy and availability may vary. 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines, PublishedSeptember 3, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT. WERTHEIMER: That's Aaron Neville singing Randy Newman's song, "Louisiana 1927.". In the parish the population was spread out, with 29.60% under the age of 18, 9.60% from 18 to 24, 27.60% from 25 to 44, 20.40% from 45 to 64, and 12.80% who were 65 years of age or older. ", 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. Some people got lost in the flood. Each institution contributes the digital items and the descriptive text for their collections. The river rose all night. Mr. AARON NEVILLE: (Singing) What have happened down here is the wind have changed. Meet NPR hosts and reporters. McNeil was 6 years old in 1927, sleeping above his father's drug store in Melville. He's also a resident of New Orleans and Washington, DC. GNIS feature ID. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. I mean, not necessarily down South but this was a huge flood across many states. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. Mr. JOHN BARRY (Author, "Rising Tide"): You're welcome. A night of incessant storms, wind, lightning, thunder and torrents of rain. 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. The flood drove many tenant farmers, most of whom were African American, off their land and, in many cases, out of the region.