Jul 13, 2018
John Magill is Historian and Curator
at The Historic New Orleans Collection. This podcast is the fifth
in a six-part series of interviews that highlight New Orleans'
history. In this podcast, John talks about flooding in New Orleans.
As we all know, flooding can be caused either by rainfall or by
water overtopping levees as a result of hurricanes. John talks
about both types of flooding that have occurred in New Orleans over
the course of time since the early 1800s.
One of the floods John describes is the devastating flood of 1927.
The 1927 flood was one of the worst rain floods in New Orleans'
history. Not only was the city flooded from heavy rainfall, but the
Mississippi River was at the top of the levees and threatened to
flood the entire Crescent City.
Many native New Orleanians who are very familiar with the city's
devastating encounter with Hurricane Katrina's inundation in 2005
are unaware that the city has flooded several times during its
history. Listen as John describes each historic flood.