Augusta, Georgia, had not been seriously menaced by floods since 1865 and the 1840 flood was becoming a dim memory. In spite of prolonged and heavy rains, Augusta’s attention was focused on the October opening of the Great Exposition, an ambitious showcase for the city’s industry and manufacturers. The river was swollen with rain but experienced river men believed the rise in water had ceased.  “There is comparatively little drift wood and none of the slightest fears of a freshet.”[1]  Outlying areas were more realistic; predicting flooding and already reporting severe damage to crops.  Anderson, South Carolina fears “ a regular freshet.  It has been raining for over a week…the creeks are getting full…. A great deal of fine bottom corn and cotton and fodder has already been ruined.”

In the early morning hours of September 11, 1888, Augusta woke to a crisis. Fire Chief Roulette raised the alarm at 1:00 a.m.  [He] “was in his saddle sounding the alarm in the driving rain.”[2] This first alert for the merchants of Broad Street enabled them to save much of their merchandise and roused the sleeping city to make what preparations it could.  Between the hours of 1 and 3 a. m., the Savannah rose rapidly, almost two feet.  At its peak, the flood waters would measure 39 feet and 1 inch high.

 
By 5 a.m., the flood waters began to slowly recede, leaving islands in the midst of the city.“The Memorial Shaft [Confederate Memorial] looked like the statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island and the Arlington Hotel would have shamed the pavilions on Manhattan Beach.”[3]

In the hours the Savannah had raged unchecked, the city suffered extensive damage.The telegraph and telephone services were mostly inoperable.   The mills were submerged in water. The canal was breached in five places. Bridges were impassable or swept away.  The police had to abandon their barracks and the fire service had been forced to evacuate to “a little dry knoll” on Broad Street. Residents fled to their upper stories and if they had no upper stories they evacuated to the roof tops.

Through September 11, the tally of the damage grew.  The bridge on McKinne Street broke through in the middle.  “From McKinne Street up as far as the King Mill, there was a placid sea of water presenting an unbroken surface.”[4]   Enterprise Mill and the King and Sibley Mills were submerged and workers demoralized.  Thompson-Houston Electric Light Works was entirely under water and Clark’s Globe Mills was submerged to the second story windows.  The new addition to Davidson High School washed away.  The area around Lee and Bothwell’s warehouse was five feet deep in water.

The bridge across Broad Street at Hawk’s Gully floated down the river with a cow for a passenger. The Augusta and Knoxville railroad suspended schedules. 

Trouble was also experienced as far up the line as  Clark’s Hill. The Georgia Railroad and The Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta railroads ceased to run and the Georgia and Central Railroads to Macon was paralyzed.

It was reported the September 10, 6 p.m. train from Augusta to Macon had not yet arrived.  In addition, the Savannah train was forced to return to Macon, because of impassable tracks.  

In Augusta, the industral canal system suffered as well. The third level of the canal on McKinne Street was wrecked and the “canal band has great yawning holes washing into it.”[5]  Furniture and possessions were swept out of houses and as the water continued to recede, it left behind gallons of standing water, gutted and washed out roads and sidewalks and a coating of viscous muddy sludge on everything remaining.

 Augusta merchants totaled their losses at $106,759 and Mayor May estimated the costs to the city to repair infrastructure: streets, sidewalks, sewers and the Augusta Canal at $1,000,000.

And yet, even as the water lapped the counters of the Broad Street shops, Augusta began to revive.  Early reports rejoiced that the flood had not reached as far as the newly completed Exposition building and grounds.  Thumbing their noses at the Savannah River, daring residents boated down the streets and arranged swimming parties in the flood water, avoiding the treacherous currents that could still sweep a man to his death.

On the night of September 11, a gala party took place at the Arlington Hotel.  To counter the destruction, Major Finston at the Arlington Hotel burned colored lights and launched fireworks.  Solicitor S. H. Cohen made a speech exhorting his fellow citizens to remember that Augusta still was  the greatest city in America and that the new theatre would open without fail on September 19, followed by the Exposition on October 10. 

Determined to find a silver lining, the Augusta Chronicle proclaimed, “As a house cleaning preparatory to the opening of business and the great national bazaar the flushing of sewers and cleaning of the street cannot be regarded with dread.”[6]  “The eyes of the whole world are upon Augusta.  There is no stick in the mud spirit about us.  We have had the flood and we propose to have the rainbow, we [will] paint it ourselves.”[7]

Augusta rushed to mount a relief effort and to restore the city in time for the Exposition.  Fifteen thousand people were dependent on the mills in some form or another for their employment. “It is consoling to know that there will be plenty of work for everybody to do when the waters go down…work for every laboring man in town.  There is enough for white and colored to do working day and night for three weeks,”[8] reported one source, yet, everyone agreed it was the highest priority to get the mills operating again.

On September12, it was estimated that more than 1,000 people had not eaten in two days.[9]  Private and public efforts commenced to provide food and water to those still flooded.  Mr. H. Dempsey was the first to spearhead efforts to bring relief to the Hawk’s Gully, one of the most hard-hit areas.  Mayor May and Judge Eve fielded boats and supplies at their own expense.  Later reports by church leaders determined that at least 300 families were left homeless and in need of long-term relief.

Mayor May took immediate measures to repair the streets, bridges and canals and his actions were later endorsed by the City Council. A vote was also taken to move the opening date of the Exposition from October 10 to November 3, 1888.

 The City Council was seriously handicapped by lack of funds to effect immediate repairs.  They could not issue bonds or raise loans, since these avenues had been exhausted by the new building and the preparations for the Great Exposition. A proposal was made to raise a special property tax of 1 percent, subject to a vote by the citizenry.  This focused action won Augusta accolades from other newspapers.  The  Baltimore Manufacturers Record, Elberton Leader, Macon News, Charlotte Chronicle, Barnwell Sentinel, and others lauded Augusta for her "pluck" and cheerful determination to recover.

The Charlotte Chronicle, in a gesture of sympathy, offered Augusta free advertising for the Exposition to aid the recovery effort and encouraged other papers to do the same.[10]  Augusta was even praised by the New Orleans Times Democrat as an example for its own city to follow in funding public works projects.

As each day passed, Augusta recovered further from the flood. By September 13, the police reclaimed their station and the U. S. Post Office was delivering mail.  The A.K Railroad could run a train to Spartanburg. On September 15, the gas lights were restored.  Plans were made to deal with the fresh water shortage.  The light-gauge rails were running on schedule and it was discovered that the water works machinery was still intact.  By September 17 the fire stations were operational.  Suggestions abounded on how to fix the streets and how to restore the canals.

 The town also debated whether it should fund a levee to hold the Savannah back or raise the city away from the water in imitation of Chicago.

By October 29, all railroads were running, all bridges, but one, were repaired and the canal was estimated to return to operation in 3 weeks.  Augusta gloried in her speedy recovery.  “No city in the country could possibly have recuperated more rapidly from its misfortunes than the city of Augusta and she deservedly ranks today among the prosperous and progressive cities of the country.  Her motto is, Upward and Onward.”[11]

 By all appearances, Augusta had recovered in time to hold an unimpeded Exposition.  The aftermath of the flood troubled exhibitor John Riley Hopkins not at all.  His complaints about his accommodation were more immediate:  “I have had some trouble with the managers of the Exposition – They built the Police prison upstairs and it is immediately over my Exhibit – and the prisoners and others got to using it as a Water Closet and the leaks run down on my table, book and circulars….”[12]

Unfortunately, this rapid recovery blunted concerns about a reoccurrence of catastrophe. Columns and letters expressed these feelings: “[People] are pasting away pictures of a flood they may never see again of which they have few remaining evidences.  The recuperation of Augusta is well nigh complete.”[13]  “Augusta is about as likely to have another flood like that of 1888 as Chicago is another fire like that of eighteen years ago or Charleston another earthquake …”[14]  These sentiments would help delay execution of serious flood protection for decades.

[1] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 9/7/1888.
[2] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 9/11/1888.
[3] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 9/11/1888.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 9/12/1888.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 9/25/1888.
[11] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 10/29/1888.
[12] Edwards, John Carver.  "Augusta’s National Exposition of  1888: The problems of promotion and sales a s reflected in the letters of John Riley Hopkins." Richmond County History (1972) 4:2 p.18.
[13] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 10/11/1888.
[14] Augusta Chronicle Online Archives 10/31/1888.