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. All Rights Reserved. . And another reason, frankly, may be a certain intellectual prejudice. The event, called simply the Great Flood of 1927, would change Louisiana forever. The Great Flood of 1927 unleashed a spring season of catastrophic events along the banks of the Mississippi River. Evangeline Parish, Louisiana - Wikipedia Thousands of tenant farmer shacks had simply disappeared. That flood dumped as much as 30 feet of water on land from Illinois and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. Scott Simon will be back next week. In Louisiana alone, 10,000 square miles in 20 parishes went underwater. They felt that it was wrong, and looking at this, I think, created a real change in the way Americans as a people viewed the role of the government's responsibility toward individuals. The enormous size of the crevasse at Mound Landing is shown in this 1928 map prepared by the Mississippi Levee District. (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. Louisiana 1927 - Wikipedia Families and farm animals sought refuge on rooftops, raised railroad beds and levees. With a sea of water in the commercial and residential areas of downtown Greenville, the town resembled Venice, Italy, with its canals. 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. A major result of the 1927 flood, which had an impact in eleven states, was the National Flood Control Act of 1928 passed by the U. S. Congress. In a 2002 Daily Advertiser report by James Savage, the 89-year-old recalled her grandmother was up at 5 a.m.hanging laundry when a couple told her the levee at Melville had broken. Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from 64 Parishes. It was from this poem that founding father Paulin Fontenot was to propose the namesake of "Evangeline" for this parish, allegedly foreseeing an emerging American tourism centered upon the Acadian saga. 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. 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. Many English Americans as colonists came from the Eastern United States to settle in the newly purchased Louisiana Territory often married into Acadian families. One of the worst natural disasters to occur in the U.S., this . Everybody in a bad humor except Jane, the cook. Other towns in the area also were not spared. Additionally, the fund had to bear the expense of feeding the refugees at a cost of $20,000 a week. hide caption, The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Lanterns on the Levee. Their intention, apparently, was to lower the level of the river and to save the city of New Orleans. 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. 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. That's one of the reasons. Most of the refugees went to stay with relatives. All Rights Reserved. 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. Nearly a million people were homeless. The population density was 53 people per square mile (21/km2). He joins us now from his office in Washington. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. In 1927, New Orleans was the most vital economic city in the South by far, and it was run entirely by bankers who didn't not even bother to consult elected officials; they simply decided they were going to dynamite the levee to reassure their correspondent banks in New York, London and Boston that they would never allow the Mississippi River to threaten the city. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Mr. BARRY: That's correct. 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. Typhoid shots and other immunizations were given to prevent the spread of disease. Why don't more people know about this? Clouds rolled in from the north and it started to rain. of submerging the alleged grave of Longfellow's Evangeline in thirty feet of flood water, oversaw the birth of triplets in an Opelousas, Louisiana, refugee center.'0 The image was that of an omnipresent Hoover . The Mississippi Flood of 1927 | WUNC 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. One day after the waters had dropped to a depth of about a foot, Teddy (who was three years old) wanted to wade using Daddys knee boots. Citizens either rowed down the streets and avenues or walked on the raised walkways that were built in front of the commercial areas. Nearly one million people were left homeless. The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. 90 years ago, the Great Flood of 1927 changed Louisiana Louisiana, Louisiana. 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]. 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. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. They're tryin' to wash us away. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. I just carried a cigar box with my marbles," he added. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. River appallingly high, and levees in very precarious condition. The newspaper continued to operate, banks did business, and telephones and electricity remained turned on. Greenvilles William Alexander Percy, son of LeRoy Percy, headed the Relief Committee in Greenville. The median income for a household in the parish was $20,532, and the median income for a family was $27,243. The Mississippi was at flood stage for months. WERTHEIMER: Herbert Hoover was President Coolidge's secretary of Commerce in 1927, so he was the man in charge of rescue operations. Evangeline has a post office with ZIP code 70537. Thousands were left homeless for weeks, even months. I have, you know, only speculative answers. Each was caused more or less by a man-made breach of a levee. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. And they didn't write about it. The western edge of the Mississippi Delta is outlined by the Mississippi River along with its companion, a man-made levee, or earthen dam, that protects the valuable farmland from river overflow. Elsewhere, Leonce Leblanc, in a 1975 oral project recorded by Otis Hebert and on file with the UL Lafayette Center for Louisiana Studies,recalled seeing the Atchafalaya River levee break around McCreain Pointe Coupee Parish. 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. LOUISIANA 1927 - Lyrics - International Lyrics Playground WERTHEIMER: That's Aaron Neville singing Randy Newman's song, "Louisiana 1927.". 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. 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. It's used to discharge water into Lake Pontchartrain, relieving pressure on Mississippi River levees around New Orleans. The river rose all day. They reneged on all their promises, written promises; they controlled the state Supreme Court, so the lawsuits against them went nowhere. Unpublished. Photograph of the Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. The National Safety Council estimated deaths in the Yazoo- Mississippi Delta alone at 1,000. 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. Mr. AARON NEVILLE: (Singing) What have happened down here is the wind have changed. A Decade After Katrina, Randy Newman's 'Louisiana 1927' Comes To Mind - NPR "Tent cities sprung up overnight at the Lafayette fairgrounds, now the municipal golf," and at Holy Rosary Institute,he wrote. The disaster is credited with sparking one of the great voting movements of the 20th century -- the shift in Southern black allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic Party -- and with spurring . President Coolidge came down in a railroad train. It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time. . Thousands of cattle drowned and farm crops were wiped out as southern Louisiana turned into a lake 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide. Mizelle, Richard M., Jr. Why don't more people know about this? . An entire crop year was lost. One force shot straight west, wrecking houses, barns and fences as it went. On May 20, just before the levee break at McCrea, Louisiana, 35,000 people fled from the fragile levee . The river rose all night. Yarborough, was one of those whose store was threatened." 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. Andrews, pastor. Nobody seemed to step back, at least then, and really looked at the whole thing. MORE: 4,500 added to flood zones in Lafayette Parish.
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