Our Times

On the morning of Jan. 5, the Wabash at Vincennes stood at 19.98 feet. Sandbagging was started at Kimmell Park, that work undertaken by both the Vincennes Street Department and Battery C of the 163rd Field Artillery, Indiana National Guard.

By Saturday night, Jan. 7, the river at Vincennes had risen to 25.67 feet. A total of 32,000 sandbags had been placed reinforcing weak spots in the wall before the supply was exhausted, with more bags having been sent for. That afternoon, some 800 troops from the 67th Field Artillery, Third Armored Division, from Fort Knox, Kentucky, arrived to aid in the flood fight. The men were housed at Clark Junior High, the Vincennes Coliseum, and Gibault Auditorium. That same day, there was a break in the Embarras River levee northeast of Lawrenceville, flooding big parts of Lawrence County.

On Sunday afternoon, as was typical during a flood, residents were out observing the river. Streets were particularly gridlocked at Second and Main Streets. That night the river stood at 26.19 feet, followed by temporary drops as upstream levees gave way.

Both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army did their part in feeding the soldiers laboring at the river wall. The Red Cross alone had already distributed more than 4,000 sandwiches, 140 dozen doughnuts, and some 500 gallons of coffee.

The outlook began to improve the week of Monday, Jan. 9. Recordings were up and down, but it was believed that if no additional rain fell, the city would be out of danger. On Thursday, Jan. 12, the Chief Meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau in Indianapolis, made a revised prediction of a 27.5-foot crest at Vincennes. At noon that day, the reading was 27.13 feet. Soldiers, the street department, and volunteers continued placing sandbags, as the floodwall showed some seepage. By Saturday afternoon, 76,000 sandbags had been placed, many more than were used during the flood of 1943, and the river level was fluctuating.

Everything changed on Sunday, Jan. 15, when heavy rains again drenched the Wabash Valley. That afternoon, some Vincennes streets flooded, as sewers were overwhelmed. Predictions for the river crest were altered to from 28½ to 29 feet. At 7 a.m. on Monday, the river at Vincennes stood at 28 feet. The U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers, from Louisville, aided in the construction of mud boxes on top of the floodwall.

As the situation became more dire, Mayor Betz asked for the release of 75 high school boys to help sandbag, with that quota quickly filled. Soldiers, civilians, and the students (with even more dismissed from classes to help) worked frantically on Tuesday in the cold, disagreeable January weather.

Soldiers spent all night building mud boxes. A wall of sandbags, in what was described as a “second line of defense” was also built at a distance of 45 feet back from the floodwall, but at the height of the mud boxes. There were leaks in the floodwall, with backwater standing on the city side of the wall, thus the purpose of the sandbags was to equalize the pressure and prevent the wall from giving way.

A wall of sandbags was also built near the Ebner Ice & Cold Storage Co. plant, where serious seepage was occurring, and sandbagging was underway south from Main Street to the Clark Memorial, as local people anxiously awaited the next crest prediction.

To be continued next week.

Brian Spangle can be reached at brianrspangle60@outlook.com. His latest book, “Hidden History of Vincennes & Knox County,” published in 2020 by The History Press, is available for purchase at the Knox County Public Library and on Amazon.