Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, November 25, 1997

Flood of 1927 played havoc in Iberia Parish

by Jim Bradshaw

Mississippi river waters had already flooded millions of acres but would have spared Acadiana had the Louisiana levees held. They didn't.

St. Landry parish communities such as Melville, Port Barre, and Krotz Springs word first to feel the effects of the flood, then it moved through Arnaudville, Breaux Bridge, St. Martinville. and kept pushing toward Loreauville, New Iberia, and other communities in Iberia Parish.

Iberians were aware of the danger as early as April, when Clet Girard, president of the Police Jury, led a delegation of Iberians to a meeting in Plaquemine. Some parts of Iberia Parish were already soaked and underwater from heavy rains by then.

When the committee returned to New Iberia, M. W. Fisher, editor of the New Iberia Enterprise, wrote that "the next thirty days are going to try men's souls in the desperate struggle to hold the levees intact and confine the flood waters to their natural course."

By May 1, St. Martin residents were becoming alarmed by the continually rising waters in the Atchafalaya Basin and on Bayou Teche. A few days later, the water in the basin had risen to the point that it was spilling over the St. Martin Parish levee. Some 1,400 volunteers worked during the following weeks to raise and strengthen the levee from Port Barre to Butte la Rose. But their work would be in vain.

On Monday, May 16, the day before the levee break, there had been a joint meeting of the American Red Cross and Chamber of Commerce in New Iberia, to set up committees that would be needed if, or more likely, when the flood came. As they met, Atchafalaya levees began to crumble, first at Cecilia, followed by a 300-foot section at Henderson. The deluge began its descent on the Teche country.

Still, some people felt safe. They remembered that the awesome flood of 1882 had been contained by the western ridge of Bayou Teche. For example, the editor of the New Iberia Enterprise had speculated on April 30, "Only that part of the land on the east side of Bayou Teche would overflow. ...The ridge or banks of the Teche form a natural levee that would withstand a flood, higher by six feet than the greatest flood this country has ever known. ...That portion lying west of Bayou Teche is perfectly safe from any flood."

Now, as the flood raced across the flat lands of St. Martin Parish, the debate became more urgent. Nowhere was it more heated than in Breaux Bridge, which sits on the Teche Ridge. Some businessmen began to move goods to their upper floors, or to evacuate, but many people simply went on about their business. They reminded themselves that never in memory had the town flooded.

The debate ended in a scamper for safety on May 21 when the water reached the western ridge, and kept on coming. According to one account, "some people carried their children, some brought out the aged and the infirm, some sought to save their livestock and furniture, all sought to save their lives." The Southern Pacific Railroad drove freight trains to the very rim of the spreading flood, hauling out people, animals, and goods.

While practically all of St. Martin Parish fled before the flood, the Iberia committee immediately began moving people from the Loreauville area, which was in the path of the flood. Meanwhile, farmers to the west and southwest of New Iberia worked to fill culverts and build levees to keep Spanish Lake from filling and overflowing. They couldn't do it.

An observer who had traveled to south Louisiana with Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover would report, "This mighty wall of water reached the Teche from Port Barre to Arnaudville and went across the ridges of the Teche striking the hills east of Opelousas, Grand Coteau, Carencro, and Lafayette with such force as to make it appear to be running uphill, rebounding with such force as to throw it back across the Teche at Cecilia and Parks, filling all the low bottoms between St. Martinville on the east and Broussard on the west, rushing toward Spanish Lake."

On May 24, the flood waters inundated St. Martinville and covered the road to New Iberia, now Hwy. 31. By daylight on May 25, the area between Bayou Teche and Spanish Lake was under water. Water from the lake began to rush toward New Iberia with a roar that could be heard half-an-hour ahead of the flood wave.

Railroad embankments held back the water in some places for a little while, but only temporarily. Practically all of New Iberia was soon inundated. There was a rise of more than 20 feet in the Teche at New Iberia when the flood wave pushed through on May 25. On May 26, it rose another 7 1/2 feet.

In New Iberia, water stood six feet deep at the corner of Mario Street and Duperier Avenue, probably the deepest in the town. It was 18 inches deep in front of St. Peter's Church. Water would stay in the town until the beginning of June. It would take longer to drain from much of the countryside.

Camps were established on high ground between Segura and Burke stations after New Iberia went under. They would remain open until July 15, when the water had finally subsided enough to reopen the highway between New Iberia and St. Martinville.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).