Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 - (Page 34)

The Great Ouachita A view from the southernmost point of the Monroe city limits. The street covered by water, South Grand, ran (and still runs) parallel to the river. able to return to their farms for a minimum of two months. Wilson’s inspection tour was widely publicized, as was the arrival of Major Thomas B. Larkin of the Vicksburg District of the Army Corps of Engineers. Larkin was to are strict state laws compelling the people of Louisiana to direct plans for a reinvigorated campaign to protect the city, oil pools of water to kill mosquitoes, and the city ordinances and he promised that the army engineers, working with also cover such conditions.” area engineer C.K. Young, would do everything in their Local livestock also faced the threat of disease as a result power to stem the rising tide. The army engineers at of the inundation. More than 7,000 head of cattle in Vicksburg shipped over 1.3 million sand sacks for laborers Ouachita Parish received anthrax vaccinations to combat who filled the bags and plugged various potential potential illness arising from the flood conditions. The trouble spots through Saturday night, as the Ouachita Red Cross sent rescue boats to various reaches of the reached 49.5 feet by Sunday morning, parish, and on February 4, a particular January 31. Most of the overnight work mission brought 112 cows from an outlying “Like an army trooping was along South Grand, where water had area to West Monroe. En route, a calf — poured into the street and flooded named “Highwater Caddo” by the relief into battle,” the local expensive riverside homes. Outlying areas workers — was born on the rescue barge. newspaper reported, fared far worse, as land from Bosco to The cold water inundating the area also “volunteer workmen Columbia was inundated with new sheets threatened animals in the zoo. On January of floodwater from the Boeuf Basin south from surrounding 13, director Harry McLeod moved both the of Monroe. Water also covered over two elk and buffalo to pens across the street at a parishes and cities hundred yards of Missouri Pacific slightly higher elevation. The following day, poured into Ouachita Railroad track, making the line many other animals found temporary Parish and Monroe inoperable. homes in the dressing rooms at Forsythe As the floodwater rose, both city Park, the baseball field for the minor Cotton yesterday to help city, employees and prisoners filled sandbags States League Monroe Twins. Turtles, state, and federal forces and built temporary levees under Monroe alligators, geese, ducks, and seagulls all battle the rampant Commissioner of Streets and Parks R.D. remained, as “they are allegedly having the Ouachita River.” Swayze. Governor Alvin O. King, arrived time of their lives.” on February 1, and the sight of Monroe, Animals and humans both felt the brunt West Monroe, and their surroundings of the cold snap on January 30, when the shocked him. King sent a telegram to President Herbert temperature dropped below freezing — to 31 degrees Hoover immediately following the brief tour, urging that Fahrenheit — for the first time. Harry D. Wilson, the Army Corps of Engineers take over flood control, much Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration, surveyed as the National Red Cross had assumed command of relief the freezing damage. After he toured relief operations, he efforts. He requested an appropriation of between $250,000 urged the rest of the State to donate food, clothing, and and $300,000 through section seven of the 1928 Flood money, estimating that “our rural friends” would not be 34 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2007-08 OUACHITA PARISH DIGITAL ARCHIVE, OUACHITA PARISH PUBLIC LIBRARY, MONROE

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Katrina: Days of Terror, Months of Anguish Paintings by Rolland Golden The Historic New Orleans Collection The Great Ouachita River Flood of 1932 Jazz Notes Louisiana Architecture Louisiana: Where Land Meets Water Louisiana State Museum Through A Lens Sharply: An Interview with Michael Lewis MR-GO: A “miracle” mired in controversy Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans: An Autopsy Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

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