1973 — Mid-March to May, heavy rain & flooding, Mississippi River Basin –28-33

— 34 Blanchard tally from State breakouts below.*
— 33 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 31, 1973. “MS River Reaches Peak…”
— 33 Ludlum. The American Weather Book, 1982, p. 82. (No detail.)
— 28 UPI. “Flood Rips Levees.” Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH, 4-28-1973, p. 1.
— 8 Since Easter weekend (Apr 20-22).
–20 “…two Mississippi floods earlier this month [April].”
— 28 USACE. Mississippi River and Tributaries Post-Flood Report 1973. Syllabus iii
— 28 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Floods and Flood Control on the Mississippi, 1973.*
— 28 USGS. The 1973 Mississippi River Basin Flood… Washington, DC: 1975, p. 1.

*Blanchard note: Though our attempt to tally deaths individually by State totals to 34, we choose to rely on published reporting of 28 or 33 deaths. It is conceivable we include one or more deaths not included in the sources noted. This is impossible to determine with History.com and Ludlum in that there are no breakouts or details. The USACE does provide cause of death details in its Mississippi River and Tributaries Post-Flood Report 1973, but does not include State, locality or date details.

*USACE on deaths: “An unusual number of people were killed in automobiles and trucks, when their vehicles went out of control and were swept away by pounding streams. One man was carried off by sudden currents within feet of the mobile home toward which he was plodding. Another succumbed of a heart attack while filling sandbags in the midst of a flood fight. Several people were victims of accidents. A housewife drowned beneath a refrigerator she was trying to move to a drier part of her home. A utility company repairman was crushed beneath a bulldozer which fell from a truck. And on the treacherous waters themselves, several lost their lives. There were the crewmen on the Lady Ree…Another man drowned when his fishing boat capsized. And a helicopter pilot died when a canoe he was paddling overturned in a swollen creek. But altogether, including these flood-related casualties, only 28 died during all the flooding of 1973. This compares with the 300-plus lost in the 1927 flood and 118 lost during Hurricane Agnes….” [No page numbers are in this digital version on Google.]

Summary of Fatalities by State

Illinois 5
Kansas 2
Louisiana 2
Mississippi 14
Missouri 3
Ohio 4
Tennessee 4

Total 34

Breakout of Fatalities by State, Date, Locality and Cause of Death

Illinois 5
–1 Havana, Apr 25. Larry Wolfe, 23, drowned bringing boat of sandbags to shore, IL Riv. levee.
–2 Indian Creek, 1M east of South Roxana, Apr 23. Drownings sisters, 9 & 11, swept off feet.
–2 Apr. No date/place: “Statewide Mississippi River flood damage…two deaths resulted.”
–2 Monroe County, MS River, May 10. Drownings; boat takes on water in flood-stage river.

Kansas 2
–2 May 21-22. Drownings; vehicle driven into flood water 1½ miles north of Carbondale.

Louisiana 2
–>2 East Carroll Parish, Mar 20. Drowning in flooded MS River. EDS/NOAA. Storm Data, 5.

Mississippi 14
–13 Blanchard tally from locality breakouts below.
–11 UPI, Vicksburg. “South Delta. Small levees going up.” Delta Democrat, Greenville, MS, 4-5-1973, 1.
— 7 Crosby, March 24. Drownings; car swept by flood-water off road into a creek.
— 6 Vicksburg, Apr 1. Drownings; towboat Lady Ree hits bridge pier in swift current, sinks.
–5 Miss. River, Apr 1. Drownings; towboat The Lady Ree hits pier, turbulent current.
— 1 Vicksburg vic., Apr 16. Drowning; fireman William R. Breithaupt, trying to retrieve boat.

Missouri 3
–1 Foley, March 28. Drowning. (AP. Flood kills 1.” Daily Standard, Sikeston, MO. 3-28-1973, 1.)
–1 St. Charles Co., Apr 25. Drowning; wading through flood water to reach trailer home.
–1 St. Louis area. Crushed while helping shore up utility poles threatened by rising water.
–1 April. No date or place; notes historic flood levels for Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

Ohio 4
–4 Scioto Riv. ~Marion. OSU students in canoe capsized in flood-stage river, swift current.

Tennessee 4
–>4 State, March 14-17. Heavy rain, flooding & drowning deaths. Storm Data, 15/3, 1973, 11.

Narrative Information

History.com. March 31, 1973: “The Mississippi River reaches its peak level in St. Louis during a record 77-day flood. During the extended flood, 33 people died and more than $1 billion in damages were incurred.

“The roots of the 1973 flood go back to October 1972, when above-average rain began falling in the river basins that feed the Mississippi River. With more precipitation than normal coming down through the winter, the stage was set for flooding when hard rain came down in March. With most of the Midwest already saturated, the Mississippi began rising slowly to flood levels.

“By the middle of March, flood waters began inundating some communities along the Mississippi. The worst of it came in early April when 6 million acres south of St. Louis, Missouri, were claimed by the river and many levees crumbled and failed.

“As they moved downstream, the rising waters threatened the city of New Orleans. Officials decided to divert some of the water to Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico. This ended the threat to New Orleans, but came at the expense of hundreds of farms in the area. In some areas, the floods continued until June.

“Floods of this type are not typically as deadly as flash floods because there is sufficient warning and time to evacuate flood regions. Those who died in this instance were largely residents who had resisted evacuation orders. Still, the flood devastated the economy of the region, as very few families had flood insurance and millions of acres of farm land were unusable for a full year following the flood.” (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 31, 1973. “Mississippi River Reaches Peak Flood Level.”)

Sources

Alton Telegraph, IL. “2 little sisters drown in creek swollen by rain.” 4-24-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-10-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/alton-telegraph-apr-24-1973-p-1/

Associated Press. “Flood Deaths Climb to 10.” Charleston Daily Mail, WV, 4-26-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-10-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/charleston-daily-mail-apr-26-1973-p-1/

Associated Press. “Flood kills 1.” Daily Standard, Sikeston, MO. 3-28-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/sikeston-daily-standard-mar-28-1973-p-24/

Associated Press. “Minor damage caused by weather in state.” Hattiesburg American, MS. 4-18-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-10-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/hattiesburg-american-apr-18-1973-p-1/

Associated Press. “Rising Mississippi River Floods Thousands of Acres of Farmland.” Joplin Globe, MO. 1-29-1973, 6B. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/joplin-globe-mar-29-1973-p-16/

Associated Press. “Worst Flood of Century at St. Louis, Grand River to Crest at Sumner Tonight.” Daily News-Bulletin, Brookfield, MO. 4-3-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/brookfield-daily-news-bulletin-apr-03-1973-p-1/

Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS. “G’ville boat hits bridge.” 4-2-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=71011482&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjIxNDI2ODQ5LCJpYXQiOjE2NDE3Nzg5NjUsImV4cCI6MTY0MTg2NTM2NX0.j0DWewlfKH_Vi7Yq-bx47qD00sTu2lZbnLY4J2fC0Gk

Environmental Data Service, NOAA. Storm Data. Asheville, NC, Vol. 15, No. 2, Feb 1973. Accessed 1-8-2022 at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS/IPS-C20943BA-32D3-4426-B205-BAC08F0B86FE.pdf

Environmental Data Service, NOAA. Storm Data. Asheville, NC, Vol. 15, No. 3, March 1973. Accessed 1-8-2022 at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS/IPS-AA0CD2DE-29AB-4AC2-82A9-AE0C5B40738D.pdf

Environmental Data Service, NOAA. Storm Data. Asheville, NC, Vol. 15, No. 4, April 1973. Accessed 1-8-2022 at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS/IPS-C24610B1-C306-4B07-B2ED-0F3DDA64EEA9.pdf

Environmental Data Service, NOAA. Storm Data. Asheville, NC, Vol. 15, No. 5, May 1973. Accessed 1-8-2022 at: Accessed 1-8-2021 at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS/IPS-79670899-2C70-449D-8CFB-A1C43DEB0026.pdf

History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, March 31, 1973. “Mississippi River Reaches Peak Flood Level.” Accessed 12-06-2008 at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=03/31&categoryId=disaster

Ludlum, David M. The American Weather Book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1982.

Monroe County Clarion, Columbia, IL. “Two Fults Youths Drown in Mishap.” 5-16-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-10-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/columbia-monroe-county-clarion-may-16-1973-p-1/

Monroe News Star, LA. “Two E. Carroll Men Drown in Heavy Current.” 3-20-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/monroe-news-star-mar-20-1973-p-1/

United Press International. “7 Persons Drown.” Times Record, Zanesville, OH, 3-25-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/zanesville-times-recorder-mar-25-1973-p-1/

United Press International. “Canoe Trip Fatal to Four OSU Students.” Crescent-News, Defiance, OH, 3-23-1973, p. 3. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/defiance-crescent-news-mar-23-1973-p-3/

United Press International. “Flood Rips Levees.” Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH, 4-28-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-10-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/zanesville-times-recorder-apr-28-1973-p-1/

United Press International, Vicksburg. “South Delta. Small levees going up.” Delta Democrat, Greenville, MS, 4-5-1973, p. 1. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/delta-democrat-times-apr-05-1973-p-1/

U.S. Geological Survey. The 1973 Mississippi River Basin Flood: Compilation and Analyses of Meteorologic, Streamflow, and Sediment Data (Geological Survey Professional Paper 937). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975. Accessed 1-10-2022 at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0937/report.pdf

United States Army Corps of Engineers. Floods and Flood Control on the Mississippi, 1973. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy5uELtVL8AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=death%20toll&f=false

United States Army Corp of Army Engineers, Lower Mississippi Valley Division. Mississippi River and Tributaries Post-Flood Report 1973. Accessed 1-9-2022 at: https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Portals/52/docs/regional_flood_risk_management/Docs/1973_Post_Flood_Report.pdf