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. "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. Discuss North Carolina politics. And another reason, frankly, may be a certain intellectual prejudice. In the days that followed, water from the levee breaks spread to the south. "Tent cities sprung up overnight at the Lafayette fairgrounds, now the municipal golf," and at Holy Rosary Institute,he wrote. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. And the American people did not accept this. Additionally, the fund had to bear the expense of feeding the refugees at a cost of $20,000 a week. 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. There were 14,258 housing units at an average density of 22 per squaremile (8/km2). Each caused widespread dislocation of large numbers of people for many months. Evangeline has a post office with ZIP code 70537. 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. Much of Lafayette remained dry. Males had a median income of $30,386 versus $16,793 for females. Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 - Wikipedia Scott Simon will be back next week. "By the time we got to the levee, we were wading in water. A boat eventually took them to a Red Cross camp where they were assigned to a tent with army cots and blankets that was their home for at least two weeks. It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time. Lanterns on the Levee. WERTHEIMER: Now when the flood hit Greenville, Mississippi, you write in the book that people, blacks and whites together, took refuge on the highest ground they could find, which was the levee. 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. The flood killed the hedges and they had to be removed.. Mr. JOHN BARRY (Author, "Rising Tide"): You're welcome. Yarborough, was one of those whose store was threatened." Aaron Neville Lyrics "Louisiana 1927" (originally by Randy Newman) 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 It swept everything before it. A break at either of these places would allow water into the Delta town with the countys largest population of about 15,000 people. 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. Mayor of Greenville John Aloysius Cannons notes show the confusion among the people as the event happened on April 21, 1927. . Residents raced to the railroad embankment, the only remaining high ground, the rescue train stranded and of no help. In some places, great mounds of sand covered fields and streets. . WERTHEIMER: John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America." Some people got away all right. The Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) is the front door to Louisiana's digital cultural heritage. Overview. 91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 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. Jolie Holland covered "Louisiana 1927" on Hummingbirds & Helicopters Vol 1: A Benefit for South Texas, a benefit album released after Hurricane Harvey in 2018.[2]. 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines, PublishedSeptember 3, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT. Greenvilles William Alexander Percy, son of LeRoy Percy, headed the Relief Committee in Greenville. 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. Was he a good manager of this 1927 flood relief effort? The Mississippi Flood of 1927 : NPR I mean, not necessarily down South but this was a huge flood across many states. Mayor Cannon and several leaders decided to stop the continuing flow of water into Greenville and to prevent the common occurrence of a June rise, the second assault of water, from entering the town. The Mississippi was at flood stage for months. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. 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. He's also a resident of New Orleans and Washington, DC. The parish was created out of lands formerly belonging to St. Landry Parish in 1910. The newspaper continued to operate, banks did business, and telephones and electricity remained turned on. When it arrived, the Red Cross passed out tents, saw that kitchens and sanitary facilities were built, and organized the large camp which would grow north along the levee for seven miles. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. Simon & Schuster Steamboats carried many of the white wives and young children away to Vicksburg or Memphis. But in the late 1800s, the Mississippi River Commission adopted a levees-only policy, which entailed the construction of levees that ran almost the full length of the river. Evangeline Parish, Louisiana - Geni And another reason, frankly, may be a certain intellectual prejudice. Mr. BARRY: Yeah, that's correct, and the idea is very comparable to simply pulling the plug out of the bathtub. The water is now at the top of the levee, and we have heavy showers and torrential downpours almost everyday and night. At the end of August 1927, an anonymous Associated Press reporter touring the Teche region was able to write, Little farmhouses, bearing brown watermarks at various heights according to the depth of the water reached, are once more occupied, and some of the farmers are plowing in preparation for new plantings. It would be a continuing flood of water the Mississippi River flowed through the crevasse for months. The Mississippi Flood of 1927 | WUNC Mr. BARRY: Well, it's a good question. 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 In 1927 the Mississippi's floodwaters reached from Illinois and Missouri all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. I have, you know, only speculative answers. Mr. BARRY: That's correct. hide caption, The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. 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. Louisiana 1927, and a People Perfectly Forgotten - All Together Now PDF Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Album - Lsu 337. That's one of the reasons. Flowers and plants beaten to the earth, little half-drowned chickens in baskets in the kitchen, house leaking in many places. WERTHEIMER: Herbert Hoover was President Coolidge's secretary of Commerce in 1927, so he was the man in charge of rescue operations. The highest areas of Greenville were covered by only a few feet of water, however, the lower areas were inundated from eight feet to over rooftops. Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from 64 Parishes. The people as a whole were confident the town would not get any water even should the levee break. 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. As of the 2020 United States census, there were 32,350 people, 12,172 households, and 7,739 families residing in the parish. Great Flood of 1927 - 64 Parishes Here's the latest on Hurricane Katrina. "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. Even at the age of 8 years, I could imagine the expanse of water that would reach from the Mississippi to where we were 60 miles away.". 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. There were 12,736 households, out of which 38.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.30% were married couples living together, 15.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.10% were non-families. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Adding to their anger, a natural breach of the levees subsequently eased pressure on the New Orleans levee; the blasting had been unnecessary. [1] The parish seat is Ville Platte.[2]. Many black tenant farmers, driven from their land by the flood, moved north to cities like Chicago and Detroit, Bradshaw wrote. 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. And they didn't write about it. 70537. To find the contact who can help you, find the field called "Contact Information" next to the image of interest to you. 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. NPR will continue to cover this story throughout the day. 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. 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. The flood took its toll on the trees and shrubs. Submit an issue. Evangeline Parish, Louisiana - Wikipedia In Mississippi it directly affected an estimated population of 185,495. This decision to not let African-Americans evacuate and to work them without pay would soon bring an eruption of racial tensions. A new recording of the orchestrated version is included on the Katrina charity album, Our New Orleans, on Nonesuch Records. 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. 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. After investigations, the committee presented a harsh report to Hoover, but he failed to take any action. Privacy Policy, Center for Louisiana Studies at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, The Louisiana Endowment has included this work in. 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. He was in charge of disaster relief for the Coolidge administration. Hundreds of sturdy barns, cotton gins, warehouses and farmhouses had been swept away. All rights reserved. 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. 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. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Thousands were left homeless for weeks, even months.. As a result of the living conditions caused by the flood, Black citizens were compelled to leave Washington County, of which Greenville was the county seat, to seek better lives in the North. A black and white reproduction of a photograph of a boat with a barber chair in Melville, Louisiana, during the great flood of 1927. The levees were not breached; river water did not rush in. The Daily Advertiser reported floodwaters were racing south due to a main levee break at Moreauville and Bordelonville in Avoyelles Parish. The event, called simply the Great Flood of 1927, would change Louisiana forever. The median income for a household in the parish was $20,532, and the median income for a family was $27,243. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. 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. John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 describes the epic disaster. French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: a primer on francophone Louisiana / Carl A. Brasseaux. All rights reserved. Thousands of tenant farmer shacks had simply disappeared. 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. Clouds rolled in from the north and it started to rain. New Orleans received 11.16 inches of rain in Februarycompared to an average of 4.4 inches for the monthand steady rainfalls thereafter. An upstream break, on the other hand, would send a disastrous flood into New Orleans. Similar Red Cross refugee centers were operated at Opelousas, New Iberia, Franklin and Baton Rouge. Much of south Monroe flooded, water reaching as high as the eaves of some homes, the newspaper reported. 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. Perhaps the only other natural disaster in the United States that comes close to the level of devastation of Hurricane Katrina was the 1927 flood of the Mississippi River. Was he a good manager of this 1927 flood relief effort? Criticism over the handling of Katrina contributed in large measure to the decision by Gov. The Louisiana Digital Library is a service provider only and has no authority to grant permission to publish or supply high-resolution images. Mr. AARON NEVILLE: (Singing) What have happened down here is the wind have changed. The Louisiana Digital Library platform has been developed by LSU Libraries on behalf of the Louisiana Digital Consortium. Louisiana suffers flooding of historic proportions, and many see Louisiana, Louisiana. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017. Greenvilles protection levee north of town did not hold in the initial April flood. My father, J.D. 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. Note elevated boardwalks. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between the North and the South. 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. "And it held.". Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from 64 Parishes. Aaron Neville - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Accuracy and availability may vary. Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. | Louisiana Digital Library Mr. BARRY: Yeah, that's correct, and the idea is very comparable to simply pulling the plug out of the bathtub. Each was caused more or less by a man-made breach of a levee. I mean, not necessarily down South but this was a huge flood across many states. It runs on the Islandora open-source digital repository software. Snead, J., P. V. Heinrich, and R. P. McCulloh, 2002, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 14:35. Lucy Somerville [Howorth] tells in her diary how citizens of Greenville, in anticipation of a crevasse prepared their town and homes for the flood. Some prominent English surnames include Chapman, Kershaw, Young, Reed, Langley, Tate and Buller. 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. That flood dumped as much as 30 feet of water on land from Illinois and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of tenant farmer shacks had simply disappeared. Henry Waring Ball Diary, Mississippi Department of Archives and History Mildred Shepherd [Rushing] Diary, Shepherd-Baird family history book written by Mildred Shepherd Rushing. Red Cross volunteers served about 50,000 meals a day in Lafayette alone, Mouton wrote. 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]. Both caused disruptions of life in southern Louisiana for thousands of people that arguably could be outranked only by the destruction caused during the Civil War. WERTHEIMER: Were there any prominent politicians who vanished without a trace because of the way they handled the flood? by Jim Bradshaw Courtesy of State Library of Louisiana. In earlier times, this would not have been the problem it was in 1927; the Mississippi River and its tributaries once overflowed into natural drainage areas. For more on Katrina's aftermath, go to our Web site, npr.org. Mr. BARRY: Well, Coolidge chose not to run for re-election, but that was independent of a flood decision. 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. Nobody seemed to step back, at least then, and really looked at the whole thing. Once again, housing had to be found for tens of thousands of refugees who had no relatives to stay with. 90 years ago, the Great Flood of 1927 changed Louisiana NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Through the early spring of 1927, the rains continued and the flood pushed downriver toward Louisiana. 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. Eventually, Bayou Teche overflowed its banks, flooding communities like Breaux Bridgge, St. Martinville and New Iberia, though not to the extent that communities to the north suffered. 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. WERTHEIMER: John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America." The parish was named Evangeline in honor of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem, Evangeline. As the people of Greenville watched the river rise they waited for the fire alarm. And the American people did not accept this. The Lucy Somerville Howorth Collection, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, Mississippi. Louisiana 1927 - stuff.mit.edu Louisiana 1927 Lyrics 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. John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood and How It Changed America." Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. Ranking Tables for Counties: 1990 and 2000", Louisiana's Technical and Community Colleges, "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangeline_Parish,_Louisiana&oldid=1140935995, Bayou Chicot Elementary School (Grades PK-8) (Ville Platte), Chataignier Elementary School (Grades PK-8) (Chataignier), James Stephens Montessori School (Grades PK-6) (Ville Platte), Mamou Elementary School (Grades PK-4) (Mamou), Vidrine Elementary School (Grades PK-8) (Ville Platte), Ville Platte Elementary School (Grades PK-4) (Ville Platte), W. W. Stewart Elementary (Grades PK-4) (Basile), Basile High School (Grades 512) (Basile), Pine Prairie High School (Grades 912) (Pine Prairie), Ville Platte High School (Grades 512) (Ville Platte), Evangeline Central School (Grades 412) (Ville Platte), Sacred Heart School (Grades K-12) (Ville Platte), Christian Heritage Academy (Grade K) (Ville Platte). Massive gates were constructed to allow excess water to be diverted into these areas in times of severe flooding. Refine results. They promised reparations to the people they flooded out, and they stiffed them. Louisiana 1927 Lyrics . They're tryin' to wash us away. Levee guards were on duty and the stack of sandbags were almost even with the rising water when the levee at Mound Landing in lower Bolivar County gave way on the morning of April 21, 1927. According to various estimates, there were between 250 and 500 flood-related deaths. "About daylight, 5:30 or so, we heard them shooting," he recalled in the 2002 report. Two-Year subscription (8 issues) : $35.00 Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. Mr. BARRY: Well, it's a good question. about 500. Kid that I was, I yelled when I heard the fire whistle, Hotdog! Though it and its tributaries were lined by levees, they were filled to overflowing, and part of the Mississippi River sought this shorter, straighter course to the sea. Jackson was the pharmacist, Edwin H. Myrick,in the 1981 report,recalled. For more on Katrina's aftermath, go to our Web site, npr.org. Area code. The Flood of 1927 was described by US Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover as the greatest peace-time calamity in the history of the country. It inundated 16,570,627 acres (about 26,000 square miles) in 170 counties and parishes in seven states, driving an estimated 931,159 people from their homes. The National Safety Council estimated deaths in the Yazoo- Mississippi Delta alone at 1,000. And it was the other place that I knew, and I was interested in the history, and heard about this flood, and I wrote the song."[1]. Both were north of Greenville at the Miller Bend and the Mound Landing levees. By the end of May, sixty thousand refugees were either in southern Louisiana camps or receiving Red Cross aid elsewhere. It was not until June that the floodwaters began to drain into the Gulf of Mexico. That their way of life is disappearing. Their intention, apparently, was to lower the level of the river and to save the city of New Orleans. President Coolidge came down in a railroad train. White people were housed on the fifth floor, Black people on the sixth. In Melville, another town on the Atchafalaya River in St. Landry Parish, officials concluded it was hopeless to continue trying to shore up the levees. The May 6, 1927, Daily Advertiser asked Catholic church goers in St. Martinville, Parks and Breaux Bridge to volunteer that Sunday and a special Mass would be held at 4 a.m. to accommodate the volunteers, Bradshaw wrote. loyno . Some people got lost in the flood; some people got away all right. The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. Over the next ten days they used thirty-nine tons of dynamite to open a channel that released 250,000 cubic feet of water per second from the river. Andrews, pastor. Nearly a million people were homeless. River water poured through the breach and began to rush to the south, soon joined by floodwaters caused by a break in a Bayou des Glaises levee to the north of St. Landry, in Avoyelles Parish. I think perhaps the most important impact the flood had we haven't discussed. WERTHEIMER: That's . Clouds rolled in from the north and it started to rain. 90 years ago, the Great Flood of 1927 changed Louisiana Families and farm animals sought refuge on rooftops, raised railroad beds and levees. He joins us now from his office in Washington. Those who had no place to go were brought to a warehouse in New Orleans. One force shot straight west, wrecking houses, barns and fences as it went. The Pentagon says an additional 10,000 National Guard troops will be going there and to Mississippi. It prevented a second wave of rising water in June and with the aid of large pumps the town was drained. It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time. The levee has broken.. : PI/CI/G74.4, no. One of the worst natural disasters to occur in the U.S., this . Nearly a million people were homeless. 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. Learn how and when to remove this template message, Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, "Jolie Holland to Release Compilation Album Benefit Post-Harvey Recovery", Lonely at the Top: The Best of Randy Newman, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louisiana_1927&oldid=1147989520, Song recordings produced by Lenny Waronker, Articles needing additional references from September 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 April 2023, at 11:30. : PI/ 1992.0002.103, Flood refugees evacuated to tent city on the hills of Vicksburg, Mississippi. 57. And in fact, he managed to deliver aid without airplanes faster than aid has gotten to New Orleans in the Gulf Coast today. They're tryin' to wash us away. Officials on May 18urged evacuation of a large area that included Port Barre, Leonville, Breaux Bridge and Arnaudville. Herbert Hoover, Spokesman of Humane Efficiency - JSTOR The Great Flood of 1927 unleashed a spring season of catastrophic events along the banks of the Mississippi River. Bonnes Nouvelles: good news about people, places and things in Evangeline Parish. Percy, William Alexander. : 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. 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. John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 describes the epic disaster. McCain, William D. The Triumph of Democracy 1916-1932 in A History of Mississippi, Volume Two, edited by Richard Aubrey McLemore.
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