Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part 8 - The Flood of 1950

Mississippi River at Natchez, Mississippi - 2014

Flood History on the Lower Mississippi:

The Mississippi River at New Orleans would reach its highest flood crest since the completion of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, topping out at 19.98 ft. on February 10th, ranking 7th highest stage recorded at New Orleans.  The crest at Reserve of 25.60 ft. is the 3rd highest all time.  

The Bonnet Carre Spillway had all 350 bays opened for 38 days.  Donaldsonville had 9th highest crest at 32.20 ft. on March 4th; Baton Rouge 9th highest crest at 42.98 ft. on March 4th; Red River Landing 10th highest crest at 57.19 ft. on March 4th.

I first wrote about the construction and design of the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Part 6 of this series on the flooding of the Mississippi River.  References to this spillway can also be found in Part 7.

In 1950, the impact of the overflow from the mighty river was felt in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.  Within the state of Louisiana, Catahoula and Concordia parishes were the hardest hit.

From the February 16, 1950 edition of the Anniston Star in Anniston, Alabama:

Anniston Star - 2/16/1950

The Austin Sunday American Statesman of Austin, Texas reported the following on February 19, 1950:

Austin Sunday American Statesman - 2/19/1950

The flooding of 1950 also put the Louisiana Hog Dog back to work.

While residents of Catahoula Parish endured more flooding in the twenty years following 1950, these floods were mostly due to heavy local rainfall which resulted in the overflow of smaller, nearby rivers and lakes.

Major flooding of the Mighty Mississippi would impact Catahoula Parish again in 1973. 

*This post is part eight in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One

Part Two
Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Sources:

National Weather Service

NewspaperArchive

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part 7 - The Flood of 1945

Mississippi River at Natchez, Mississippi - 2015

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi dealt another blow to the state of Louisiana during the early months of 1945.  Central portions of the state saw 7,488,000 acres of  rich farm land and stock raising areas under water.

Taylor Daily Press (TX) - 4/4/1945

The Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened on March 23 and remained open through May 18.  This was the second time the spillway had been opened since its completion in 1931 and the first time that all 350 bays were eventually opened; allowing 318,000 cubit feet of water per second to pass through.

While the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway saved the city of New Orleans, other parts of Louisiana were less fortunate.

Catahoula Parish was faced with the overflow from the Mississippi, Ouachita and Black rivers.  Jonesville was reported to have been surrounded by flood waters.  Harrisonburg became isolated and the Coast Guard was sent in to rescue people from roof tops.

An article published in the Monroe News Star on April 17 reported that the Ouachita River showed signs of dropping.  However, as the article goes on to state, Catahoula and Concordia parishes continued to face backwater flooding.

MNS - 4/17/1945

"The backwater, rising rapidly, has covered nearly the entire residential section of Ferriday, coming up as far as the post office in the business section of the city.  All of the mill section, colored quarters and the Interstate Natural Gas Company area have been under water for some time past."

"At the Red Cross headquarters a large crew is working to alleviate suffering and to take care of those moved out by the water.  Guards are still on duty at Jonesville, which has been isolated by floodwaters.  Around Harrisonburg, guardsmen are working with the Red Cross and families are tented along hills from Sicily Island to White Hall and Jena." 

The Port Arthur News of Port Arthur, Texas reported on April 25, that  an appeal had been made by local officials to U. S. Army engineers to open the Morganza floodway to help drain off flood waters which had covered the parishes of Concordia, Tensas and Catahoula.

Port Arthur News - 4/25/1945

Construction of the Morganza Spillway began in the late 1930s.  The control structure was not completed until 1954.  The flood control act of congress stated that waters were not to be diverted through the Atchafalaya floodway by the opening of the Morganza Spillway until all improvements had been completed in the Atchafalaya floodway.  Those improvements had not been completed at the time of the 1945 flood.

Despite the flood control act of congress, a congressional delegation toured the Morganza floodway and determined that the opening of the floodway would "bring little relief to already inundated areas and great harm to southern Louisiana."

Mary, Willie and Tim Cupit - Catahoula Parish, 1945 (courtesy of Pam Twiner Thompson)

*This post is part seven in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One

Part Two
Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Sources:

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

National Weather Service

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part Six - The Great Flood of 1937

Mississippi River at Natchez, MS - 2014

Ten years after residents of Catahoula Parish experienced the horrific impact of the 1927 flood, they were faced with yet another great flood.

Officials in Catahoula Parish began their preparations as early as February 6 as seen in the article below from the Biloxi Daily Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Biloxi Daily Herald - 2/6/1937

MNS - 2/14/1937

In an article appearing in the February 14, 1937 edition of the Monroe News Star, the following was reported about Catahoula Parish:

Across the river at Harrisonburg, Rhinehart, Ferriday, Vidalia, Jonesville and other places, the flood sufferers are also being afforded homes and food, medical attention, and should the need arise, concentration camps will be established at Natchez which can care for 10,000 persons, and at Rhinehart and Harrisonburg, in the hills of Catahoula parish, where thousands can be cared for in the event a major disaster takes place.  

From the Blytheville Courier News in Blytheville, Arkansas on February 18, 1937:

Blythevile Courier - 2/18/1937

The Red Cross reported here today that plans were being made to evacuate approximately 25,000 persons in Concordia parish-Catahoula parish, Louisiana areas due to a crevasse which has developed in the levee protecting the area from Mississippi river back waters.

Around 12,400 persons would be affected by the evacuation plans in the Concordia parish area and 12,200 in the Catahoula parish area, the Red Cross said.

The Biloxi Daily Herald reports the following on February 18, 1937:

Biloxi Daily Herald - 2/18/1937

Privies under construction by the Louisiana WPA at Rhinehart, Catahoula Parish - 1937

Refugee camps near Harrisonburg, Catahoula Parish - 1937

Boxcars where refugees lived in Rhinehart, Catahoula Parish - 1937

The Great Flood of 1937 tested the Bonnet Carre Spillway for the first time since its completion in 1931.

Bonnet Carre Spillway

The spillway was built following the flood of 1927.

Located in St. Charles Parish, the spillway is 5.7 miles in length and runs from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain.  It is opened when the river gauge threatens to top twenty feet north of New Orleans near Carrollton.

Cranes lift the 8"x12" wooden beams within the bays which allows 250,000 cubic feet of water per second to pass through the spillway.
There are up to 7,000 wooden beams within the bays of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

Of the 350 bays, 285 were opened for forty-eight days between February and March of 1937.

Flood waters began receding in areas of Catahoula Parish on March 25, 1937.


The Bonnet Carre Spillway has only been opened nine times since it was built.


The National Red Cross Report on the Relief Efforts during the flood of 1937:

In Louisiana alone in 1937, approximately twenty-five thousand (25,000) persons, driven from their homes by flood waters, were cared for by the National Red Cross.  The largest group of these refugees was in the Jonesville area, where some fifteen thousand (15,000) persons were registered and received relief.  Driven from their homes by rising backwaters, these people were mainly from the Parishes of Catahoula, Concordia, LaSalle and Rapides.

The work of evacuating refugees was in the main accomplished by CCC boys under the direction of Red Cross officials.  Where it was necessary to erect housing facilities, the work was done by Works Progress Administration workers, also under the direction of the Red Cross.

Throughout all its work of rehabilitating refugees in the southern area, the Red Cross has sought to keep the family intact.  In all refugee camps, therefore, families have been kept together; and housing facilities have been created with this object in mind.  

Moreover, in nearly all cases where refugees had been evacuated, the latters' household furnishings were taken out at the same time.  

*This post is part six in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One

Part Two
Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Sources:

Louisiana Digital Library

History of the Bonnet Carre Spillway

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
National Weather Service

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part Five - The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

1927 Flood Map

In an earlier post from November 17, 2012 I documented the impact of the flood of 1927 on Sicily Island.  

Other areas of Catahoula Parish and surrounding parishes were not as fortunate as Sicily Island during this disastrous flood.

1927 Flood Map

Louisiana Folklife contributor, Betty Jo Harris, wrote the following:

Jonesville, located in Catahoula Parish, suffered some of the worst water in the state. On 1 July, the Tensas Gazette reported, "The town of Jonesville, once the pride of Catahoula Parish and a thriving little metropolis has been stricken by the hand of the greatest river flood of all time in a manner that is truly unbelievable" (Tensas Gazette 1927b). The paper observed that the town was a veritable wreck due to the water which measured 15 feet in some areas.

From the Catahoula Parish History website we find a 1927 photograph contributed by Barbara Dener of mail being handed out an upstairs window of the Post Office/Ford House:

Jonesville, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana - 1927 Flood

From the Northeast Louisiana Historic Images Collection we find a 1927 photograph of St. Joe in nearby Tensas Parish:

St. Joe, Tensas Parish, Louisiana - 1927

GenDisasters has the following report about the 1927 flood's impact on Catahoula Parish and its neighboring parishes:

Thousands of people fled the flooded areas in search of higher ground.  Refugee camps were set up in the Catahoula communities of Harrisonburg, Rhinehart and Sicily Island.   In an article from the May 12, 1927 edition of the Miami News we learn of the outbreak of Smallpox in these camps.

Miami News - 5/12/1927

GenDisasters gives the following timeline and summary of the Flood of 1927:

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States.

The flood began when heavy rains pounded the central basin of the Mississippi in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to capacity. On New Year's Day of 1927, the Cumberland River at Nashville topped levees at 56.2 feet.

The Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles. The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people in seven states.

The flood affected Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Arkansas was hardest hit, with 14% of its territory covered by floodwaters. By May 1927, the Mississippi River below Memphis, Tennessee, reached a width of 60 miles.

By August 1927, the flood subsided. During the disaster, 700,000 people were displaced, including 330,000 African-Americans who were moved to 154 relief camps.

*This post is part five in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One

Part Two
Part Three

Part Four

Sources:

Catahoula Parish History

Louisiana Folk Life

Louisiana Digital Library

GenDisasters

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part Four - Early 1900s

Mississippi River at Natchez, Mississippi - 2014

The early 1900s saw the mighty Mississippi River overflow five times between 1903 and 1916.

Flood of 1903

The Mississippi River reached its ninth highest crest of record at New Orleans on May 29, 1903; cresting at 19.42 feet.

St. Louis Republic - 3/23/1903

Catahoula Parish may have been spared in 1903 due to a build up of the Sycamore levee following the flood of 1897.  From the March 23, 1903 edition of the St. Louis Republic of St. Louis, Missouri:

This levee has been raised since the flood of 1897 from two to three feet higher than it was then, and will be able to withstand the large amount of water yet to reach here.  This is the most important levee in this section, and if it holds intact the overflow will not flood Concordia, Tensas and Catahoula parishes on the front.

No other news reports have been found to indicate flooding occurred in Catahoula Parish in 1903.


Flood of 1908

The National Weather Service's records show that the lower Mississippi River was above flood stage for over 100 days below Arkansas City, Arkansas in the late Spring and early Summer of 1908.

Catahoula Parish felt the impact of this flood as noted in a July 11, 1908 article which appeared in the Thibadoux Sentinel of Thibadoux, Louisiana.

Thibadoux Sentinel - 7/11/1908

Flood of 1912

The mighty river made its presence known to the people of northeast Louisiana when it flowed out of its banks in 1912.  

Washington Herald - 4/26/1912

The El Paso Herald of El Paso, Texas reported on the flooding in Catahoula Parish in its April 30, 1912 edition.  

Whole Parish Under Water in Louisiana...Conditions in Catahoula parish were reported desperate.  Only about 10 percent of the total area of the parish is above water.

El Paso Herald - 4/30/1912

A May report from the flood relief committee in Natchez, Mississippi stated the following:

"All of Concordia Parish, all alluvial land in Catahoula Parish and on our side of the Mississippi, is now under water, and the river is still rising.  People are being forced to leave their homes and are being brought to Natchez for safety.  Over two thousand here now.  All railroads are out of commission.  Government relief work is equal to emergency."  

Washington Herald - 5/9/1912

Ferriday, Concordia Parish, Louisiana - 1912

Flood of 1913

In the latter part of April 1913, the lower Lake St. John levee broke due to overflow from the Mississippi River.  The following article from Natchez, Mississippi which appeared in the April 28, 1913 edition of The Sun in New York reports on the situation:

The Sun- 4/28/1913

The lower Lake St. John levee, twenty-eight feet high, ten miles above Ferriday, La., broke this morning at 3:30 o'clock and Concordia parish and parts of Tensas, Franklin and Catahoula parishes are being flooded, the water returning to the Mississippi through Black and Red rivers.  No deaths have been reported.

The river above and below has been relieved by the break, the depression being felt here in three hours and the water is falling an inch an hour. The gap is half a mile wide and twenty-five feet deep.

Flood of 1916

On February 15, 1916, main levees broke along the Mississippi River.  The following news articles report the events and the impact to several parishes including Catahoula.

From the February 15, 1916 edition of the Evening Star of Washington, D.C.:

It was stated that a large volume of water was rushing through the breaks and would flood Tensas, Concordia, Franklin, Catahoula, and possibly Madison parishes in Louisiana.

Evening Star - 2/15/1916

Evening Star - 2/15/1916

The Day Book of Chicago, Illinois reported on February 15, 1916:

Day Book - 2/15/1916

The Louisiana governor's office received requests for flood relief for the people of Catahoula and Concordia parishes in March of 1916.

Madison Journal - 3/18/1916

From an article appearing in the March 18, 1916 edition of the Madison Journal of Tallulah, Louisiana:

More appears for relief of the flood victims of Concordia and Catahoula parishes reached the governor's office.  

One, signed by a committee composed of S. A. Clark, notary public; W. F. Miller and S. D. Fairbanks, came from Parham, Catahoula parish.  

It said that 250 people and 67 head of stock which had been saved from the flood were badly in need of food and fodder.  It asked that provisions be sent to Tilden Landing on the Black river, the point most easily accessible to them.

*This post is part four in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One

Part Two
Part Three

Sources:
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
National Weather Service

ULM Library Special Collections

Flooding of the Mighty Mississippi, Part Three - The 1890s

Mississippi River at Natchez - 2014

The Flood of 1892

It appears that Catahoula and Concordia parishes suffered flooding in 1892 but there is no mention of the Mississippi River flooding that year per the National Weather Service.

Asheville Daily Citizen - 2/8/1893

An article appearing in the February 8, 1893 edition of the Asheville Daily Citizen in Asheville, NC references the flooding of the previous year.

Four thousand people in Concordia and Catahoula parishes in the northern portion of Louisiana are on the verge of starving. Information received from that section yesterday shows that the people are in a pitiful condition and unless relief is given them at once many deaths from starvation will result.  The floods of the last summer destroyed their crops and the water remained so long that it was not possible to plant corn or anything else beyond some quickly maturing vegetables. Hence hundreds moved away. Thousands, however, were unable to leave.  Those remaining have subsisted during the winter on wild game, but now they have nothing to keep body and soul together.

The Flood of 1893

Catahoula Parish did not see as much flooding as its neighboring parishes to the north.

St. Paul Daily Globe - 5/17/1893

The St. Paul Daily Globe in St. Paul, MN warned of the consequences of the levee break on the west bank of the Mississippi River south of Greenville, MS in an article dated May 17, 1893:

"All of the northern part of Louisiana will be flooded, and it is also feared that the water cause great damage in the central portion of the state, as Red river, in which it will flow, is rising rapidly, and will soon be out of its banks."

Daily Public Ledger - 5/24/1893

On the 24th of May, the Daily Public Ledger in Maysville, KY reported the news of a break in the levee south of Lake Providence, Louisiana:

"The levee on the Wiley plantation, four miles south of Lake Providence, broke at 10:30 o'clock Tuesday.  This is by far the most serious break that has occurred during the present high water....the crevasse Tuesday is nine hundred feet wide and only eighteen feet deep and caving rapidly."

The Flood of 1897

From an article appearing in the April 17, 1897 edition of The Herald in Los Angeles. California:

The crisis has arrived in northern Louisiana where the the mighty force of nature has won the fight.  

The Herald - 4/17/1897

Last night at 10 oclock the workers on the levee at Biggs, four miles below Delta, La., were horrified to see a sudden bulge in their embankment.  A small yellow stream began to trickle through the aperture and a moment later there came a crash.  The Louisiana main system had at last succumbed to the fearful onslaught of the Mississippi river.

A general alarm was sounded and the inhabitants of the vicinity began moving their valuable effects.  In thirty minutes the crevasse had increased in size from a dozen feet to fifty yards, and the water was pouring through the opening with fearful velocity.

San Francisco Call - 5/10/1897

There is a strip of swamp about two miles wide immediately behind the levee where the break occurred, and beyond that are many of the finest plantations of Southern Louisiana.  

The water flows into the Tensas river, and should that stream prove unable to carry the great volume of water into the main channel the flooded area will extend to Franklin and part of Catahoula parish, and take the fifth district levee, where the board had concentrated nearly a thousand men along the line of the levee adjacent to Biggs, this strip having been regarded as one of the weakest points in the entire system.

The fertile lands that will be inundated are in the highest state of cultivation and the loss will be tremendous.

On May 10, 1897 the San Francisco Call reported, "The town of Trinity, Catahoula Parish, at the junction of Tensas, Ouachita and Black rivers, is submerged."

Residents of Catahoula Parish finally received good news towards the end of May.

NY Sun - 5/27/1897

*This post is part three in a series of posts in which an attempt will be made to document the history of flooding in Catahoula Parish caused by the overflow of the Mighty Mississippi River.  Occurrences will be presented using maps, newspaper articles, photographs and reports from the State Library of Louisiana and other collections from the sources linked below each post. 

Introduction
Part One

Part Two

Sources:
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
National Weather Service