Sixty-five years ago, a tropical wave off the Gulf of Mexico brought days of heavy rain to East Texas. The Sabine River started to rise as the rain drained from the land. Floodwaters moved southward toward Orange.
The people decided to fight back with heavy equipment, sand, sweat, and cigarettes.
“Flood Fighters Optimistic About Whipping Mad Sabine,” was the 60-point headline on Page One of the daily afternoon newspaper Orange Leader on May 22, 1953.
The paper later estimated 500,000 sandbags were stacked along the river by thousands of volunteers, along with some 600 sailors from the Orange Naval Station plus Navy reserves. Five hundred soldiers were sent from Ellington Air Force Base.
In addition to the sandbags, the Navy and shipyards had three draglines pulling up sand from the river to build levees. Bulldozers and amphibious vehicles were brought to make the levees.
The women and girls were “manning” the canteens set up by the Salvation Army and American Red Cross. They “kept the workers well supplied with food, drink, and cigarettes,” the paper reported.
The “great disaster” of 1953 needs to be put in perspective. Local officials were talking about the worst flood in history. They did not have access to e agencies like the National Weather Service, which keeps online statistics on river levels across the country. One of the same level had hit in May of 1935, and another bad one in 1913.
The record level of the Sabine River in Orange is Hurricane Ike in 2008, which sent a storm surge up from Sabine Lake. The river reached 9.86 feet above sea level. Next comes the days after Tropical Storm Harvey last year as water released from Toledo Bend Reservoir made its way down. The river was 7.83 feet on September 3, 2017. The March 2016 flood was at 7.62.
The “record” flood in 1953 had the river reaching 5.67 feet above sea level on May 24. However, the predicted level on May 19 that year set the river at 9 feet at the mouth of Little Cypress Bayou, and 7.5 feet at Front Street in downtown. No dam had been built upstream.
Back in 1953, Orange had thousands of people living along the banks of the river in the vast Riverside housing addition, built in World War II. The newspaper said “1,542 homes in Riverside stand in peril of being flooded.”
The 1950 U.S. Census had Orange with a population of 21,174 people and it was growing. By 1960, the population was 25,605.
The shipyards in town helped grow the population. The yards, U.S. Steel Corporation (American Bridge) employed “1,500 men” and Levingston had 500 employees, according to the paper. Both yards were along the river and faced flooding problems.
The town fought against Nature to protect homes and businesses. Weingarten’s headquarters shipped 1,000 sandbags to protect the grocery-department store on Second Street.
But even with the hustle to protect themselves, people were still thinking of others who had suffered disasters. The cities of Waco and San Angelo had tornadoes tear through days earlier. The Strand movie theater in downtown, “Cooled by Refrigeration,” was holding a benefit late show for the two cities. All seats were 60 cents to see Ann Sheridan and Sterling Hayden star in “Take Me to Town.”
The show was the night of Wednesday, May 20, 1953, as the river flooded the “farmers” of Deweyville. The afternoon paper on May 21 had another 60-point headline. “Sabine Aims Mighty Blow At Orange.”
Under the headline “Deweyville Loses Fight With River” was a story by reporter Ralph Ramos, who later became an early TV newsman a couple of years later.
Ramos wrote “Old Man River, ageless, ponderous, but determined, is still champion, mighty champion of all.”
He also reported that animals and reptiles, particularly snakes, were coming out because of the flood.
The newspaper reported some run-ins with poisonous snakes, but only one serious snake bite. Mrs. Maurine Linscomb stepped out of the car to help her husband adjust the headlights. She disturbed a rattlesnake that bit her foot three times.
Orange was still not ready to surrender. The city’s civil defense leader was Martin K. Thomen, a hardware store owner who later became mayor. Agriculture Agent A.J. McKenzie was the county’s civil defense leader. Orange Mayor Pro Tem Howard Peterson was helping coordinate all the efforts. Joining in were military leaders from the local Naval Station and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. John W. Simmons was president of the Sabine River Authority.
On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem Peterson said “we must hold down panic.” Dr. H.H. Key was the city-county health officer. He was watching to assure there wasn’t an “outbreak of typhoid and intestinal disorders.” The Brownwood, Cove, and North Orange areas had pit toilets and septic tanks that could spill “waste matters in ditches.” (Interstate 10 did not exist and Simmons Drive ended at Brownwood.)
Another health situation had come up in Bridge City, which was not worried about the river flood. There, the second rabid dog of the year had been found.
Closer to Orange, people living on West Bluff Road had evacuated except “stubborn old ‘Uncle Jim’ Weaver and Eddie Forrest,” the paper reported.
Heavy equipment was moved in to the Brownwood area to build a levee along Bilbo Road. About 50 families were evacuated from the neighborhood.
The three elementary schools in Riverside were out because of the flood, but not everyone in the Orange Independent School District was dismissed. Wallace, Curtis and Anderson elementary schools still had classes. The high schools were out because the boys were helping with the sandbags and the girls were making sandwiches.
Stark High Principal Paul Pearson rescheduled tests and then went to help his community. He and Mrs. Thorton Griffin supervised more than 400 Red Cross volunteers making food and delivering it to the front lines.
For four days, they served hot meals plus an estimated 100,000 sandwiches, along with candy, cookies, soft drinks and coffee.
The river rose and the sandbags basically held. Leaks developed in some spots, but no catastrophic flooding was reported.
By the afternoon of Monday, May 25, the headline was “Sabine Starts Down.” And the town was left with a half million bags of wet sand.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Wondering how high the water was during Hurricane Audrey? Notice the population in 1960 was 25,605. Now in 2018 the official population is 18.000+ Pre-Harvey and the area annexed must be 50% larger than it was in 1960. Brownwood, Little Cypress and Hwy. 87 North of I-10 were not in the city limits.
In Port Arthur there wasn’t much rain at all, Louisiana took the brunt.
Great story Margaret. My dad was with the Strategic Air Command stationed in Lale Charles at the time. He said all personnel were sent to Orange to help with sandbagging.
Nice to read of times where most everyone pulled their own weight and worked together for the good of the people, community and country. Where oh where did those days go?
Wonderful story Margaret and so where the others you have written so please share some more history that has been lost. There is without question the hard working people of the past were community minded an always willing to help others. All these was done with little or no communication as today the mass media is more harmful than helpful.
leaving Bluebird fish camp by boat going toward the river look to the right. The higher ground all overgrown are part of the old Levee. I was 10 and would go with my Dad after work into those areas. People, Lights , Lots af activity. Beehive. Would also go to the end of 5th
street by the Orange Leader presses and check out the water lever gauge there.
Margaret is one of Orange Texas true assets. The first thing I check for in the morning while drinking my coffee is to see if Margaret has written another article concerning our wonderful communitys past.
PS – I can vouch for those open ditche’s in The Cove full of raw sewage.
On a happier note , I can remember my mother taking a picture of me on that Texas granite monument when I was a young boy. Thank you Margaret for bringing back memories of our community.
I like the way they reported the news back then and people helped people. Everybody was involved ! Great story Margaret! It was a great read.