On September 26, 1929, the Augusta U. S. Weather Bureau Chief, Mr. Eugene Emigh, reported “there is small possibility of the hurricane moving this far inland…” [1] and that ^“there is no danger whatever in regards to the levee.” [2]

 

These predictions proved wrong.  The next day the Savannah River rose rapidly due to heavy rains falling on northwest Georgia and the 4.41 inches which had fallen here from a tropical depression.  As a precaution the canal gates were closed and men patrolled the levee for any possible breaches as had occurred in past floods. 

In spite of this, a 250 foot break in the levee occurred below the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway Bridge, allowing backwater to enter the city.  The water also washed away eighty feet of concrete from the Sand Bar Ferry Bridge. 

 

By 1:00  a.m. on September 28 the river crested at 46.3 feet, the highest ever recorded, leaving in its wake damaged roads and bridges and flooded lowland residences and manufacturing plants, primarily in South Carolina and below Augusta.  People walked on the levee watching household goods, parts of bridges, and livestock wash down the river. 

 

All highways leading out of Augusta were flooded.   The U.S. Postal Service stopped delivery and downtown merchants moved merchandise to top floors hoping to avoid damage from floodwater.  Gasoline from the former People’s Oil Company poured into the river from tanks overturned by floodwaters. Electrical service to homes and industry ceased, stranding residents and workers alike.  Six hundred feet of the canal bank had washed away. 

 

By Sunday, September 29, one hundred city blocks were under water, including the city cemetery.  Over two hundred Boy Scouts and their twenty-two leaders were ready to be mobilized for rescue work if needed.

 

Travelers found the going tough.  Four Greyhound bus passengers made it to Augusta from Atlanta twenty-four hours late after the bus had been stopped by water.  The four were put in automobiles and on mules to get them through.  The driver said, “Once I even carried them across a stretch of water on my back.” [3]

 

Man and beast showed courage in this face of adversity.  A “Three Musketeers Story” was reported in the Augusta Chronicle.  Three people were water bound in a cabin but refused to split up when a rescue boat could hold only two of them.  “A lone hound dog sat mournfully but steadfastly atop a dry goods box on the front piazza of the house.  His tail, none too generous in proportions, hung only a few inches above the waters that menaced his haven.  Despite the rising flood, he unflinchingly kept his post, for his home and master were endangered and his post of vigil was at the humble door.”[4]   

 

The finger pointing began, mostly at the mayor and city engineer, because they had not acted on warnings of engineers in the early summer to raise bridges and the levee, and to clear out debris and overgrowth covering areas between the river and the levee.  “No more graphic illustration of utter lack of organization and inefficiency can be portrayed—than that which has characterized the canal and levee situation in this instance.”[5] 

 

The outcome suggested was that any levee commission must be given power “outside the scope of petty politics and freed of incapable and careless conditions that so frequently creep into public affairs conducted on the principle of ‘passing the buck.’ ”[6]   On October 1, the City Council passed a resolution to establish a permanent levee commission. 

 

 

Second Emergency in Four Days.

 

The storm wasn’t finished.  On Wednesday, October 2, 1929, Augusta faced another disaster from rising waters due to unprecedented rainfall (over nine inches in the previous twenty-seven hours and continuing) and possible flooding again coming into the city from levee breaks.  The Weather Bureau predicted the river would crest at forty-seven feet and the levee was in “dangerous condition.” [7] The mayor and Eugene Emigh were begging people to leave their homes in the downtown area and take refuge on the Hill.  Fire trucks went through the town sounding their sirens to warn the people to leave. 

 

Thomas S. Gray, chairman of the not yet fully instated levee commission, was at city hall directing operations.  He requested the help of U.S. Army soldiers, city prisoners, and police “to round up all idlers who would not volunteer to aid, and put them to work arbitrarily.”[8] 

Augusta was in a critical situation; its safety depended on the levee holding back the floodwater. The levee was under close watch; workers with sandbags were dispatched as necessary.  These workers came from many areas of the city and included volunteers from the American Legion and students from Paine College. 

 

By midnight the city courtroom at the courthouse was filled with people, dogs and chickens.  Hotels Bon Air-Vanderbilt, Forrest Hills-Ricker and Partridge Inn opened their doors to about one thousand refugees in total, providing food and shelter.  The compassion of the hotel managers was summed up, “It’s a cosmopolitan assemblage, for freshets and such visitations fall alike on the lowly and the mighty.” [9]  Members of the Richmond County Medical Society offered refugees free medical care.

 

Downtown Augusta was once again filled with water. A fish was found swimming in a ditch on Greene Street.  Two hogs in the area were left in a pen and when flood waters lifted them above the fence level, they swam to a nearby corn field and were found eating away at their new find.

 

Fortunately for Augusta, the levee held and disaster was averted.  According to the Augusta Chronicle, “only a few Augustans will ever know just how near disaster came several times during the night” [Tuesday, October 1, 1929.].[10]  Even so, a letter to the Chronicle editor claimed the loss sustained by the flood “far surpasses the General Sherman famous march to the sea.”[11]

 

As a result of this flood, there was increased interest in the construction of dams above the city to hold back flood waters and “harness the river for electric energy to help make us an industrial metropolis.” [12]  It became clear that action must be taken to prevent further disaster. 

 

The newly appointed levee commission were deemed heroes for having taken control of overseeing the safety of the city by organizing teams to monitor the levee during the flood.  In spite of that, the levee commission was to become a political football between the mayor and city council for months to come. 

 

The Augusta Chronicle wisely advised, “Augusta must build anew the levee where it has been weakened, the strong places must be made yet stronger and development must be assured.  Perhaps we never again shall see such a flood as has visited the city recently, but we must be prepared to meet the situation at all times.”[13]