Year: 1974 2:54 210 Views Playlists: #1 The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.com The president say, "little fat man isn't it a shame. A few have crops already growing, and cane and corn are making a brave attempt to put forth fruit despite the late start given them.. The LDL is built withIslandora, an open source digital library system based onFedora,Drupal, andSolr. Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Genius Lyrics It was a strictly political power play. Rosalie Yarborough recalled how they kept a boat tied up at the front steps of the house, "and every afternoon, my mother would get in the boat with her milking pail and paddle out to the edge of a hill where our cow was staked. Jo-El Sonnier - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | AZLyrics.com "And we'd row the boat right into the drugstore front door, right on down to the pharmacy counter" to give Jackson prescriptions to fill. On May 12 or 13, the levee at Bayou des Glaises near Cottonport in Avoyelles Parish, north of St. Landry Parish, failed. Username * Password * Request new password; Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. Though New Orleans had been spared, other parts of southern Louisiana were still in trouble, particularly in the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Teche basins to the west of the city. 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. Nature defeats man's efforts As heavy rainfall in 1926 continued into the spring of 1927, the Mississippi. This decision to not let African-Americans evacuate and to work them without pay would soon bring an eruption of racial tensions. Urged to leave, residents boarded trains for higher ground in Opelousas, Bradshaw reported. Jackson was the pharmacist, Edwin H. Myrick,in the 1981 report,recalled. Parishes set up rehabilitation committees to find food and shelter for the displaced families. The crevasse was so huge it allowed a volume of raging water that covered nearly one million acres with water ten feet deep in ten days. Privacy Policy. The community is located at the junction of Louisiana Highways 97 and 100, 5.9 miles (9.5 km) east-northeast of Jennings. The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. About 15,000 acres, including areas along the Vermilion River, suffered the worst of the flooding in Lafayette, according to reports. . President Bush announced this morning that an additional 7,000 federal troops will be sent to Louisiana to help with relief efforts. 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. All rights reserved. There were 14,258 housing units at an average density of 22 per squaremile (8/km2). New Orleans received 11.16 inches of rain in Februarycompared to an average of 4.4 inches for the monthand steady rainfalls thereafter. Louisiana, Louisiana. The newspaper continued to operate, banks did business, and telephones and electricity remained turned on. My mother is from there, her family is still there. The event, called simply the Great Flood of 1927, would change Louisiana forever. Dupre and Baudin Streets during Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. A 12-inch fall is reported for Cairo. : PI/CI/G74.4, no. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 And How It Changed America. He said "I was born in Los Angeles, but I went to New Orleans when I was, like, a week old. 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. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. The cost of the damage has been estimated to be between $246 million and $1 billion, $4.2-$17. Islandora advanced search. The 1927 flood also helped propel Herbert Hoover to the presidency a year later. The Flood of 1927 showed that levees alone would not solve the problem of flooding on the Mississippi River and forced the federal government to reconsider its flood control policy. The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 was the nations greatest natural disaster. I lived with her a few years when I was a baby, and I'd go back in the summers. They're tryin' to wash us away. ebrpl . It runs on the Islandora open-source digital repository software. Now, I dont have to take that Latin Exam. And I threw my book into the air hitting the porch ceiling . 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines, PublishedSeptember 3, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. 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. Flowers and plants beaten to the earth, little half-drowned chickens in baskets in the kitchen, house leaking in many places. GNIS feature ID. Legal Notices, Downtown Greenville, Mississippi, on April 30, 1927, six days after the levee break. That nobody would care if they were to disappear tomorrow. 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. Mr. BARRY: Well, Coolidge chose not to run for re-election, but that was independent of a flood decision. You never know where WUNC's events will take you. WERTHEIMER: Now the city fathers of New Orleans made a decision to take down a section of the levee 13 miles south of the city. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. The levees there were under pressure from both sides, and concerned citizens began to buy boats and stockpile food. The flood killed the hedges and they had to be removed.. We were somewhat late in turning on the alarm, as we could get no one at the Levee Board with the proper authority to say where the break was., Sixteen-year-old Mildred Shepherd was studying for her Latin exam when she heard the fire alarm. And the American people did not accept this. One of the worst natural disasters to occur in the U.S., this . And in fact, he managed to deliver aid without airplanes faster than aid has gotten to New Orleans in the Gulf Coast today. Great Flood of 1927 - 64 Parishes . . The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Album is a visual record of selected Louisiana losses from the 1927 Mississippi Basin flood. Search terms . Here's the latest on Hurricane Katrina. Many black tenant farmers, driven from their land by the flood, moved north to cities like Chicago and Detroit, Bradshaw wrote. You know, the Greenville public schools actually--while other Mississippi counties seriously debated whether they wanted to teach African-Americans to read--in Greenville African-Americans were being taught Latin. Some prominent English surnames include Chapman, Kershaw, Young, Reed, Langley, Tate and Buller. The flood caused more than $400 million in losses; 92,431 businesses were damaged and 162,017 homes flooded. 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. After Hurricane Katrina, one Randy Newman song was played often. On April 27, 1927, 66 members of the Louisiana National Guard's Company B left Lafayette for New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish to help strengthen levees on the Mississippi River, Locke Mouton of the Acadiana Area Red Cross wrote in theJuly 24, 1983, Daily Advertiser. User login. People couldn't get their arms or heads around it. Irma Yarborough, a native of Columbia in Caldwell Parish,recalled in the 1981 News-Star-World that on May 7, a dam on a tributary of the Ouachita in Arkansas sent water rising rapidly in Columbia. MORE: 4,500 added to flood zones in Lafayette Parish. 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). He's also a resident of New Orleans and Washington, DC. Louisiana, Louisiana. The water is now at the top of the levee, and we have heavy showers and torrential downpours almost everyday and night. 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. Another train stood ready to roll if the worst happened, hauling to safety the hardy, or foolish souls who stayed behind, even though water from Bayou des Glaises had inundated nearby Palmetto, LeBeau and Rosa," he wrote. 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. 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. WERTHEIMER: That's Aaron Neville singing Randy Newman's song, "Louisiana 1927.". Photograph of the Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. What the river has done to this poor . 70537. hnoc . Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. Hundreds of sturdy barns, cotton gins, warehouses and farmhouses had been swept away. If you do that, the water will drain out--if you punch a hole in the levee. Additionally, the fund had to bear the expense of feeding the refugees at a cost of $20,000 a week. And another reason, frankly, may be a certain intellectual prejudice. 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. The Flood of 1927 and Its Impact in Greenville, Mississippi - 2006-03 - MS Please contact the Center for Louisiana Studies for more information. Each caused widespread dislocation of large numbers of people for many months. Downtown West Monroe wasn't as fortunate as backwater from the Ouachita River flooded that area. 4,500 added to flood zones in Lafayette Parish, What you should know about hurricanes, heavy rain and flood insurance, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.10 males. The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines. Evangeline Parish, Louisiana - Wikipedia And that was because of the elite, aristocratic planter class, who did feel a certain noblesse oblige toward their sharecroppers, but they didn't let that interfere with a fairly ruthless sense of dollars. 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. All Rights Reserved. Why don't more people know about this? Members include public libraries, academic libraries, museums, and archives from arcross the state. "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. The median age was 34 years. Residents raced to the railroad embankment, the only remaining high ground, the rescue train stranded and of no help. 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. 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. River appallingly high, and levees in very precarious condition. Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. | Louisiana Digital Library "And it held.". That flood dumped as much as 30 feet of water on land from Illinois and Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. Ewing, Inc. (Baton Rouge, La.) Refine results. It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. 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. 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. The people as a whole were confident the town would not get any water even should the levee break. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. "About daylight, 5:30 or so, we heard them shooting," he recalled in the 2002 report. 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. 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. MORE: What you should know about hurricanes, heavy rain and flood insurance. 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.'. Ewing, Jasper G. Flood damageLouisiana. About 81 percent of St. Landry Parish was inundated, while about 67 percent of the land in Iberia and St. Martin parishes going under water. It rained in torrents and almost without intermission for nearly 48 hours. 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. Clouds rolled in from the north and it started to rain. WERTHEIMER: Herbert Hoover was President Coolidge's secretary of Commerce in 1927, so he was the man in charge of rescue operations. by Jim Bradshaw Courtesy of State Library of Louisiana. 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. WERTHEIMER: Now the city fathers of New Orleans made a decision to take down a section of the levee 13 miles south of the city. 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. Criticism over the handling of Katrina contributed in large measure to the decision by Gov. [2] [3] Mr. BARRY: That's correct. I said there were almost 700,000 people being fed by the Red Cross. Percy, William Alexander. They promised reparations to the people they flooded out, and they stiffed them. A Decade After Katrina, Randy Newman's 'Louisiana 1927' Comes To Mind - NPR As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,350. One-Year subscription (4 issues) : $20.00 . John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 describes the epic disaster. As a result, huge tracts of lowland, called spillways, were set aside in south central and southeastern Louisiana. PDF Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Album - Lsu 25.71% reported speaking French or Cajun French at home, the highest percentage of any Louisiana parish.[13]. Princella Wilkerson Nowell lives in Greenville, Mississippi, and teaches Spanish at Washington School. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Despite the valiant effort,levees in northeast Louisiana began to fail. 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]. Overview. WERTHEIMER: Were there any prominent politicians who vanished without a trace because of the way they handled the flood? More than 10 inches fell. Nearly a million people were homeless. In some places, great mounds of sand covered fields and streets. The Mississippi was at flood stage for months. Nearly one million people were left homeless. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. "The fire whistle and the Standard Oil plant shrieked a warning as levee guards sped through the streets, firing pistols and rifles and shouting 'crevasse, crevasse.'". . 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. Raining constantly all this morning, none of us slept much. Everybody in a bad humor except Jane, the cook. 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. 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. 90 years ago, the Great Flood of 1927 changed Louisiana Families and farm animals sought refuge on rooftops, raised railroad beds and levees. Scott Simon will be back next week. William Beanland, a civil engineer, was chosen to handle the repair work. 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. The Louisiana Digital Library is a service provider only and has no authority to grant permission to publish or supply high-resolution images. Another flood control structure and spillway was built in the 1950s at Morganza to divert water from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River Basin, relieving pressure on levees from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. It tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Louisiana and Mississippi. In Mississippi it directly affected an estimated population of 185,495. A black and white reproduction of a photograph of a boat with a barber chair in Melville, Louisiana, during the great flood of 1927. After investigations, the committee presented a harsh report to Hoover, but he failed to take any action. The boys rescued the chickens and placed them on a scaffold out of the water. 90 years ago, the Great Flood of 1927 changed La. - The Daily Advertiser Mr. Barry, thank you very much. Whole communities, such as Bayou Chne, built upon a ridge in the Atchafalaya River basin, had to be abandoned because they were in the path of the floodwaters that might be diverted. Nell went through pouring rain to the garden club. African-American families were instructed by some community leaders to stay on the levee to work in flood control and, later, recovery efforts. They're tryin' to wash us away. Local and state agencies did what they could to shore up levees along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers and adjoining waterways from Richland Parish south to St. Landry Parish. The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines. Mr. BARRY: Well, it's a good question. (See Napoleon's Soldiers In America, by Simone de la Souchere-Delery, 1999). He joins us now from his office in Washington. "The last trainload of people pulled out about midnight May 16. The levee has broken.. 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. Photoshop 7 and CS, Epson Perfection Scanner 1200U, 3170, 4890, Macintosh G5, University of Louisiana at Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies. Mr. BARRY: That's correct. Meanwhile, conditions improved in Greenville once the protection levee was finished. I think perhaps the most important impact the flood had we haven't discussed. An entire crop year was lost. This unit belongs to the 139th RSG (regional support group). hide caption, The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Unidentified, One-Year subscription (4 issues) : $20.00, Two-Year subscription (8 issues) : $35.00, 64 Parishes 2023. A boat was tied up at the Jones Pharmacy Drugstore where W.L. WERTHEIMER: Mr. Barry, clearly, we're looking at incredible devastation in photographs of New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines: shattered homes, piles of debris that are completely unrecognizable as whatever they once were. Most of downtown Monroe stayed dry as levees and a railroad embankment kept floodwaters at bay, the newspaper reported. Each was caused more or less by a man-made breach of a levee. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1973. "The merchants worked all day through the night trying to scaffold up their store goods. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. Discomfort. Both were north of Greenville at the Miller Bend and the Mound Landing levees. The Louisiana Digital Library platform has been developed by LSU Libraries on behalf of the Louisiana Digital Consortium. Some six hundred prefabricated cabins were sent to St. Martin Parish and more like them elsewhere to temporarily replace destroyed housing. (You can unsubscribe anytime). Analyze how and why you love the way you do. In particular, the narrator lays out the widespread nature of the destruction ("river had busted through clear down to Plaquemines") and the volume of water the flood produced ("six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline"). With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand. Accuracy and availability may vary. 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. Smith's song "was the spark for it . 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. Those who had no place to go were brought to a warehouse in New Orleans. Copyright laws. 57. Go to the levee! WERTHEIMER: And some of them were evacuated, but not everybody. As heavy rainfall in 1926 continued into the spring of 1927, the Mississippi River began cresting in places like Cairo, Illinois, sending tons of water rushing southto Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. In Mississippi there were two levee areas of special concern. Used by permission of Dr. Ted Shepherd. The song became identified with Hurricane Katrina in the public consciousness after being sung by Aaron Neville at NBC's "A Concert for Hurricane Relief", being sung by Newman at the multi-network television fundraiser Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, and a fully orchestrated version of the song performed by Newman during Saturday Night Live's "Mardi Gras Special". (This piece initially aired on Sept. 9, 2005, on Morning Edition.) 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. The river rose all day. Levee guards were placed in camps at strained sites along the top of the levee and ordered to maintain them from danger of crevasse, a break in the levee which would allow water to enter the area it protected. Most settled for pennies on the dollar, and practically all of them remembered that it was a man-made catastrophe that put them where they were. The regions burgeoning tributaries caused the Mississippi River to overflow in eleven states from Illinois to Louisiana. The Lucy Somerville Howorth Collection, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, Mississippi. PHOTOS: Flood damage at Lafayette Parish schools, USA's infamous 'Tornado Alley' may be shifting east. Martin Parish line on May 19; Breaux Bridge and St. Martinville in St. Martin Parish two days later; then New Iberia and Jeanerette in Iberia Parish; and Franklin and Morgan City in St. Mary Parish. Refugees had to file a claim to receive compensation under a complicated system that divided payments into various categories, provided that no partial payments could be made, and without legal representation. loyno . 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. All Rights Reserved. President Coolidge came down in a railroad train. 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. Evangeline Parish is mentioned in the Randy Newman song "Louisiana 1927", in which he described the Great Mississippi Flood which covered it with six feet of water. Ville Platte, La. 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.'. The river rose all night. Then, on Good Friday, April 15, 1927, more than 14 inches of rain fell on New Orleans in a single day, disabling the pumps that normally drained the city. The threat continued to worsen, however, and state government officials believed the levees would inevitably break. Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline. See our upcoming events and sign up to attend. Elizabeth Clutchett was 15 at the time. The air is saturated with moisture, and the luxuriance of plant growth is extraordinary. Marcia Ball - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Washtubs, work benches, household furniture, chickens and domestic animals went floating by.". 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. The federal government did not pay a single penny for the clothing, food or shelter of any one of those 700,000 people. Parrish, Susan Scott. WERTHEIMER: That's . 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. One force shot straight west, wrecking houses, barns and fences as it went. She would feed the cow and milk her and we would all come back by boat.". The Mississippi Flood of 1927 | WUNC Most of the refugees went to stay with relatives. Nobody seemed to step back, at least then, and really looked at the whole thing. I mean, not necessarily down South but this was a huge flood across many states. A total of 41,673 homes were flooded; 21,836 buildings were destroyed; 62,089 buildings were damaged; and 2,836 work animals, 6,873 cattle, 31,740 hogs, and 266,786 poultry were drowned. They're tryin' to wash us away. 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. The steady rainfall filled streams, bayous, creeks, and ditches in the Delta region and saturated the farmland. Nobody seemed to step back, at least then, and really looked at the whole thing. : PI/ 1992.0002.103, Flood refugees evacuated to tent city on the hills of Vicksburg, Mississippi. I said there were almost 700,000 people being fed by the Red Cross.