THE FLOOD OF THE CENTURY
This amazing story begins with the formation of a low-pressure system, some 150 miles southeast of Barbados on July 20, 1887. As it intensified, the Category 1 hurricane continued westward into the Caribbean Sea, becoming a strong Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) on July 22. The fourth storm of the year moved westward and passed over the eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula. The storm made an abrupt turn northward and then northeasterly. It made landfall on the Florida Panhandle on the morning of July 27 as a Category 1 hurricane, bearing winds at 85 mph. The storm continued northward, as a tropical storm, before dissipating late on July 28 near Augusta, Georgia. The storm and its remnants brought heavy rain to the Southeast with a reported 16.5 inches at Union Point north of Dublin.
In the book of Genesis, we read that a rain of forty days and forty nights flooded the Earth. This storm only took eight days to wreak historic havoc on the communities of the Oconee River Valley. From Athens to Lumber City, water levels were greater than at any other time in the history of Georgia.
Over the last days of July, the Oconee was a raging river, with an estimated water flow of more than 100,000 cubic feet/per second or 26.82 trillion gallons per hour. A correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution reported that the Oconee River at Dublin was as high as it ever had been. In surveying the scene, the reporter calculated that the river was at least a mile wide at Dublin, a town which was on the verge of explosive growth into one of the largest cities in the state in the early 1900s.
The first bridge, a drawbridge kind, over the Oconee River, which was completed in 1886 by Dr. R.H. Hightower, was easily swept away and destroyed. It was reported that the flood came with literally little warning as people were standing on the bridges only three minutes before it was ripped away.
James T. Wright, President of the Dublin & Wrightsville Railroad, scheduled an emergency trip to Dublin to secure the depot, which had just been established in 1886. Aboard the train was an army of hands, who were racing to remove the improvements and equipment from its depot on the east side between Ferry Street and the bridge in East Dublin.
Buildings along the western riverbank succumbed. As of August 2, the Oconee River was still rising. Upstream the Central of Georgia Railroad Bridge at Oconee, Georgia was impassable.
Similar reports emerged out of Milledgeville. Homes that were thought to be very safe from flooding were overcome by the flood water.
At the upper end of the Oconee River in the Athens area, bridges, houses, and other buildings suffered a similar fate with a rainfall of more than ten inches. Since the area was near the headwaters of the river, the flood stages were much lower than those downstream to the river’s junction with the Ocmulgee at Lumber City. The trains around the area were parked.
Massive flooding was not limited to the Oconee River Valley. From Agusta to Columbus the remnants of the hurricane dumped tons of water into the Savannah, Ocmulgee, and Flint Rivers.
Macon was also hit hard.
Curiosity seekers traveled to the river banks to witness the phenomenal sight. They observed trees, lumber, livestock, and other things rapidly rolling down the river.
A week into the flood, a group of people noticed a yard-long coffin in the rushing waters.
They managed to bring it ashore. They attempted to open the securely made pine box. When the coffin was opened, the most foul stench arose and sickened them all. The coffin was filled with cotton and the remains of a dead child.
Old timers compared the flood to what was known as the “Harrison Freshet.” Then the largest flood of the century was named for two separate freshets which occurred in 1840. The sudden freshet was named for William Henry Harrison, staunchly supported by Middle Georgians and who was elected President of the United States that year. It appears that the heaviest rains fell west of the Oconee River and had a lesser effect on Dublin and Laurens County.
Floods continued to plague river dwellers in Laurens County The ten largest measured floods between 1894 and 1948 were: 1) April 12, 1936 (33 feet;) January 21, 1925; March 7, 1929; August 19, 1928; October 5, 1929; December 3, 1940; March 18, 1913; March 5, 1902; March 26, 1944; and March 12, 1912. The greatest floods originated from tropical storms from July to August and from late winter and early spring storms in March and April.
. What would have been greater floods were diminished with the building of Lake Sinclair and Lake Oconee. To put this all in perspective, in the last 130 years, the level of the Oconee River at the bridge has exceeded the 30-foot level only one other time. That was on March 11, 1998, when it peaked at 32.0 feet.
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