It tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Louisiana and Mississippi. It rained in torrents and almost without intermission for nearly 48 hours. Great Flood of 1927 - 64 Parishes by Jim Bradshaw Courtesy of State Library of Louisiana. Information about the Louisiana Digital Consortium can be found here: http://louisianadigitalconsortium.org. 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. : 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. Elizabeth Clutchett was 15 at the time. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1973. 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. Newman's version starts out with piano solo, but builds into including a whole orchestra. Popa Ed Lenzs hedges was clipped to form an arch over the walk way to his front door. A few Acadians such as Franois Pitre and his wife settled the area between Evangeline and St. Landry parishes, preferring the rich pre-American and pre-Civil War era Cajun planter's lifestyle over that of the humble and isolated existence of their Acadiana cousins. The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines. In the days that followed, water from the levee breaks spread to the south. 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.'. People couldn't get their arms or heads around it. 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. I have observed that when the river is high it is always raining. As of the 2020 United States census, there were 32,350 people, 12,172 households, and 7,739 families residing in the parish. Those who were less experienced immediately began fleeing the area by train and continued to do so until the tracks became unusable. I have, you know, only speculative answers. The alarm that the levee had broken was given to the people of Greenville by a prearranged signal, the fire whistle. On May 12 or 13, the levee at Bayou des Glaises near Cottonport in Avoyelles Parish, north of St. Landry Parish, failed. 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. Currently, there are 25 participating institutions in the LDL. Quiz yourself on Black history. 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. New Orleans received 11.16 inches of rain in Februarycompared to an average of 4.4 inches for the monthand steady rainfalls thereafter. "By the time we got to the levee, we were wading in water. 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. That flood dumped as much as 30 feet of water on land from Illinois and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. Too dark to write, another big storm coming noon. 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 author and her sister, Rosalie, helped their mother dig up some of her favorite plants so they wouldn't die in the flood. MORE: 4,500 added to flood zones in Lafayette Parish. He was in charge of disaster relief for the Coolidge administration. A boat was tied up at the Jones Pharmacy Drugstore where W.L. Lives were lost in Greenville, Mississippi, he said, and a woman gave birth on a rooftop where her family had climbed to escape the flood. Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Genius Lyrics A day too dark and stormy to go to church or even out of doors. 337. The flood drove many tenant farmers, most of whom were African American, off their land and, in many cases, out of the region. An upstream break, on the other hand, would send a disastrous flood into New Orleans. 2.3% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). Many English Americans as colonists came from the Eastern United States to settle in the newly purchased Louisiana Territory often married into Acadian families. 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.". 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. 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 levee has broken.. Coordinates: 3044N 9225W / 30.73N 92.41W / 30.73; -92.41, United States presidential election results for Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 14:35, Learn how and when to remove this template message, National Register of Historic Places listings in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, https://web.archive.org/web/20091026030323/http://geocities.com/old_time_time/many.htm, "Census - Geography Profile: Evangeline Parish, Louisiana", "Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990", "Census 2000 PHC-T-4. Ewing, Jasper G. Flood damageLouisiana. . : PI/1992.0002.020, Intersection of Washington and Shelby streets in downtown Greenville. As the water rose in the Mississippi River and levees broke in other states, all indications were that 1927 would be one of the worst years for flooding. about 500. 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. Her grandfather, the Rev. Mr. BARRY: He did a magnificent job in managing the logistics of feeding, delivering aid, shelter to 700,000 people, and half of whom were living in tents. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport: Northwestern State University of Louisiana: Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport, Vermilionville Living History Museum & Folklife Park. The steady rainfall filled streams, bayous, creeks, and ditches in the Delta region and saturated the farmland. The Mississippi was at flood stage for months. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. It prevented a second wave of rising water in June and with the aid of large pumps the town was drained. President Bush announced this morning that an additional 7,000 federal troops will be sent to Louisiana to help with relief efforts. Hear poetry from NC's poet laureate. It was a strictly political power play. Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Lyrics.com Louisiana 1927 - The Boston Globe And another reason, frankly, may be a certain intellectual prejudice. 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 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. Hundreds of sturdy barns, cotton gins, warehouses and farmhouses had been swept away. It was a strictly political power play. Mocking birds often nested in the arch. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between the I think perhaps the most important impact the flood had we haven't discussed. 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. The LDL is built withIslandora, an open source digital library system based onFedora,Drupal, andSolr. All rights reserved. Aaron Neville - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | AZLyrics.com Now, I dont have to take that Latin Exam. And I threw my book into the air hitting the porch ceiling . Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. 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. All Rights Reserved. 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. Center for Louisiana Studies Archive; Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. 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. Other towns in the area also were not spared. GNIS feature ID. 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 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. As the waters receded people drifted back to their homes to clean up and continue their lives where they left off. For more on Katrina's aftermath, go to our Web site, npr.org. 2023 www.theadvertiser.com. I mean, not necessarily down South but this was a huge flood across many states. That same system brought heavy rainfall to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, an alluvial plain located in northwest Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,350. "About daylight, 5:30 or so, we heard them shooting," he recalled in the 2002 report. In 2007, the song was covered by Ray Stevens on his tribute album to New Orleans and Louisiana culture, New Orleans Moon. She cautioned Ted to be careful and he said, I am, Mama. Dupre and Baudin Streets during Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Go to the levee! 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. Great Flood of 1927 - 64 Parishes The congressional response to the devastation, the 1928 Flood Control Act, had far-reaching social, political, and physical consequences in Louisiana and throughout the Mississippi River valley. 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. 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. The population density was 53 people per square mile (21/km2). 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. 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. 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.'. 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. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. WERTHEIMER: And some of them were evacuated, but not everybody. She writes about life after the waters left and gives a glimpse of her everyday life. He was in charge of disaster relief for the Coolidge administration. I said there were almost 700,000 people being fed by the Red Cross. 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. 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. 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. Criticism over the handling of Katrina contributed in large measure to the decision by Gov. President Bush announced this morning that an additional 7,000 federal troops will be sent to Louisiana to help with relief efforts. Each changed both the physical and political face of the region and played a role in national affairs. LSU Libraries' Technology Initiatives: lsudiglib@lsu.edu. Mr. JOHN BARRY (Author, "Rising Tide"): You're welcome. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. Evangeline Parish, Louisiana - Geni A black and white reproduction of a photograph of a boat with a barber chair in Melville, Louisiana, during the great flood of 1927. Most of the refugees went to stay with relatives. THE LYRICS, by singer/songwriter Randy Newman, tell the story of the Louisiana flood of 1927, which killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands across six states. Aaron Neville - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Genius Lyrics