The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 at Scarsdale, LA

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The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 at Scarsdale,
LA

• A presentation by Ava Zebrick.

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The Mississippi River was the gateway to the
country. Attempts to manage it caused more harm
than good.
Since dredging technology did not exist, the
Corps strategy to clear the river for ships was
to close off all channels, which would increase
the velocity of the river so much that sediment
would be carried away. The results we
catastrophic.
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Heavy rain poured down throughout the country the
summer of 1926. By September, the river basin was
brimming. The river system topped over the levee
for the first time on New Years Eve 1927, at
Cumberland River in Nashville, TN.
The Mississippi River would out of its levee
system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square
miles or about 16,570,627 acres.
It was headed towards the mouth of the
Mississippi.
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About 30 tons of dynamite was used to breach the
levee at Caernarvon, thirteen miles south of
Canal Street, in order to save New Orleans from
flooding.
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Men watch as the waters flow into St. Bernard and
Plaquemines Parish. In all the flooding would
cause over 400 million in damages.
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Aside from the loss of property, there was a
substantial loss of life. The seven state wide
flooding claimed the lives of 500 people.
Here the Coast Guard searches for survivors.
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During the disaster, 700,000 people were
displaced, including 330,000 African-Americans
who were moved to 154 relief camps.
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The waters remained stagnant through the summer,
forcing those in the area to adapt, until it
subsided in August.
Those who had prepared for the flooding faired
well. Among those was my grandmothers father, or
my great-grandfather, Allen Hingle, of Scarsdale
Plantation, ½ a mile down from the break in the
levee.
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The 1920 Census shown here lists the members of
the household on Scarsdale Plantation.
Octave Hingle (Grandfather to Claire) Estella
Hingle (Grandmother to Claire) Allen Hingle
(Father to Claire) Alphonsine Hingle (Mother to
Claire)) Estelle Hingle (Sister to Claire) Claire
Hingle (my grandmother, at the time 1 year
old) And Camille, Hilda, Heard, Alvy, Stella, and
Shirley were all aunts, uncles, and cousins.
In this 1930 census below, my grandmother is 13,
and it shows her two younger sisters, Mildred
(Nunny) and Barbara (Bee).
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This photograph was taken on the plantation. My
grandmother, Claire, is on the left, and her
sister, Estelle, is also being held by their dad.
Allen had built plank walks from the house to the
levee, to the grocery store he owned, as well as
to his mechanic shop in preparation for the
flooding.
Not only did their house and shops not flood, but
they also provided much needed goods and services
to those less fortunate. This included assisting
the African Americans on his land, which was rare
during the event, with repeated reported abuse to
blacks.
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Here is my grandmother playing with her older
cousin, Shirley, in front of her aunt and uncles
house on St. Maurice.
When it flooded several years after this photo,
in order to keep a semblance of normalcy for the
children, they were sent to school downtown with
Shirley.
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Here my grandmother, on the far left, plays with
two of her sisters and Shirley at Scarsdale.
The land flooded soon after and the girls took
advantage of the confusion by having unmonitored
fun and becoming quite mischievous.
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Scarsdale was a sugar plantation, and this is the
old sugar mill.
During the flood, the girls used this as a jungle
gym, jumping into the water from the rooftop.
My grandmother, at the age of nine, and the other
girls also took one of the sugar vats, using it
as a pirogue. Aunt Camille would close up the
family run grocery store during lunch, and the
girls would row over to it, sneaking in, and
stealing candy.
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There was a mass loss of livelihood throughout
this disaster. Was it all even necessary?
In fact, that answer is no there had been
sufficient levee breaks well upstream of New
Orleans, which would have made it impossible for
flood waters to seriously threaten the city.
Some later believed that the levees were
destroyed merely to protect the richer portions
of the city, directing it instead to rural areas
and cutting financial losses.
Such beliefs still echo today in regards to
Hurricane Katrina.
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The devastation caused by Katrina, resembles that
of the 1927 flood.
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Flooded streets.
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The need for relief.
Racial discrimination.
Over 13,000 evacuees near Greenville,
Mississippi were gathered from area farms and
evacuated to the crest of an unbroken levee, and
stranded there for days without food or clean
water, while boats arrived to evacuate white
women and children. Many blacks were detained and
forced to labor at gunpoint during flood relief
efforts. Those who refused the work without pay
were denied Red Cross rations.
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Broken levees.
The destruction of the Lower 9th Ward started
with a series of earthshaking explosions.
Though there is no evidence to support that there
was a conspiracy to break the levees, some
similarities still ring true.
There had been poor government preparation,
management, and response.
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The End
Dedicated with love to Claire Isabelle Hingle
Zebrick
1919 - present
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Work Cited
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flo
od_of_1927 http//www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1
538720/posts http//www.wsws.org/articles/2006/ja
n2006/tide-j27.shtml www.ancestry.com http//lou
isdl.louislibraries.org/
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Here is my grandma posing in her dads victory
garden when visiting home from college.
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Here she is on another visit to her parents
house, holding my aunt and standing with the
familys lifetime servant and nanny.