Floodwaters and Foundations on the Eastern Shore

_By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Tucked away in a quiet corner of southeastern Kentucky, my little nook is usually spared the brunt of nature’s wilder tantrums. But my beloved Chincoteague Island? Not so fortunate.

Dancing with the Elements

Let’s start with a geography lesson...with a twist.

Many in the U.S. aren't familiar with the name Delmarva. And I get it. This area often gets overlooked as insignificant. Many regions do, especially if they don't create national impact. But this peninsula is made up of DELaware, plus parts of MARyland and VirginiA. Pretty straightforward, right? Not for everyone, as I've learned. Chalk it up to being raised in the area and surrounded by the regional influences. :)

Years ago, during a family reunion on Chincoteague, I told a relative I was from Delaware. They blinked at me and asked, “Where’s that?” Rather than spell it out, I asked them if they knew the name of the peninsula where they lived, and they said, "Delmarva, of course." I then asked what the name Delmarva meant. Their answer? “That’s the electric company!”

Cue my teenage eye roll.

Eventually, I asked them to name the states that make up Delmarva. Some got Virginia and Maryland right away. Delaware? Crickets. Now, mind you, Delaware isn’t just one of the three. It actually takes up over 60% of the land area. For lifelong residents of the peninsula not to know that? That’s a sad commentary on the state of geographic literacy in our country. But I digress.

Forgotten in the Forecasts

Just as Delaware often gets left out of conversations, so does Delmarva when it comes to national weather reports. Hurricanes are tracked up the Eastern Seaboard with warnings issued for Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, and New York. But Delmarva and the MidAtlantic? Often skipped.

And yet, this region has experienced record-breaking flooding after some of the most devastating hurricanes in U.S. history. One such nor'easter in 1933 permanently severed a barrier island just south of Ocean City, MD and created 2 separate islands. Storms in this area hit quite hard with lasting effects.

Why? Because of how the weather systems collide.

Hurricanes coming from the southeast often clash with cold fronts sweeping toward the coast from the northwest. The result? A swirling, soggy mess that parks itself right over the peninsula, dumping rain for days. Historically, these storm patterns affected everything from local farming to smuggling operations during the Revolutionary War, when blockade runners would navigate Chincoteague Harbor to move goods south.

But when the peninsula turned into a swampy floodplain in late summer, travel became treacherous. There was more marshland than dry ground. One of these storms occurred when the famous horse, Misty, was about to give birth to one of her foals. He was named Stormy, as a result.

Wading Through Chincoteague

Flooding isn’t a freak occurrence on Chincoteague. It’s part of the rhythm of life.

As a kid visiting in late summer, I remember rolling up my jeans and kicking off my sandals to wade through water that sometimes reached our knees...or higher! On stormy weeks, residents would break out rowboats to navigate the streets. Picture this: getting dressed for Sunday meeting, only to pile into a boat instead of a car.

Some folks swoon over the gondolas of Venice, Italy. But I’m not so sure I’d enjoy that as a yearly lifestyle. There’s a fine line between charming and exhausting. And Chincoteague’s flooding can easily tip the scales.

The Aftermath and Adaptations

Of course, it’s not all whimsical boat rides and soggy socks. Flooding brings real danger. Property loss, structural damage, and sometimes even loss of life. That’s why so many homes and buildings on Chincoteague are built elevated, with raised foundations or full-blown stilt systems, much like beachfront homes all across the coastlines.

When storms destroy, rebuilds happen. Elevation has now become a way to survive.

Rain Boots and Resilience

Having grown up all around the Chesapeake Bay, I’ve seen my share of hurricanes, nor’easters, and relentless downpours that stretch for days.

My most recent visit to Chincoteague? Pony Penning Day. Unlike the last time I visited and had to trudge around the island with soaked shoes and mud-splattered legs, this time the weather cooperated with blue skies and warm temperatures. The ponies? Totally unfazed. The soggy marshland is their playground.

And it’s not just summer rains that cause trouble. Winter storms combined with high tides have also brought eerie sights. Ice floating in flooded streets. Snow meeting saltwater. Frozen sheets of water. A frosty floodplain.

Chincoteague takes it all in stride, just like the ponies. The islanders adapt, rebuild, and press on. It’s part of their story. And thanks to family roots and muddy memories, it’s part of mine, too.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Have you ever experienced flooding where you live? How did your community adapt or prepare for future storms?

* If you lived on Chincoteague Island, would you embrace the “boat-to-church” adventure or head for higher ground?

* Do you know the geography of your own region? What fun or surprising facts could you share that most people overlook?

Leave answers to these questions or any comments on the post below.

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Come back on the 9th of each month for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has embellished stories since childhood, thanks to a very active imagination and notations of talking entirely too much. Honing those skills led her to careers as an award-winning and best-selling author and speaker, while also working as a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help them just get rooted and live a life of purpose.

Currently, she lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children, two dogs, and five cats in southeastern Kentucky. In her 20+ years as a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and has agent representation with Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

When Sky and the Earth Wreak Havoc

Worst Natural Disasters in History 

by Martha Rogers

I've been through many storms from hurricanes to tornadoes to floods, and they have always fascinated me and had me thinking about the results left behind. Our country has seen many natural disasters caused by what insurers call "An Act of God."

When a weather pattern forms circles with a low-pressure center, whether rotating clockwise or counterclockwise, it is technically known as a cyclone. This includes hurricanes and tornadoes as well as larger systems such as a middle-latitude cyclones. Hurricanes and typhoons are two names for the same type of storm--a strong tropical cyclone. The names are interchanged in various areas of the world. Today, we look at some of the greatest ones in history before 1950.

Several years ago I did an entire blog on the Galveston hurricane that devastated the island and caused hundreds of death. It happened before hurricanes had names and is simply known as the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It hit shore and became the deadliest storm to hit on American soil in history with 140 MPH winds and fifteen foot waves. Estimates of deaths ranged between 8,000 and 10,000 people killed. Even a year later, bodies were found washed ashore. 

Since then, hurricanes have hit the Gulf and Atlantic coast lines from deep South Texas to both coasts of Florida and up the Atlantic coast on up to Canada. Meteorologists refer to hurricanes as the most deadly storms to hit land. Because of the length of time they take to move through an area and how long they can last, death tolls and destruction runs high.

Most of us remember the more recent ones from Carla, to Camille, to Katrina, Rita, Ike, Sandy, Andrew to name a few. The damage from a hurricane can be as devastating today as it was over a one hundred years ago. Now, the National Weather Service can be much more accurate in their predictions of where the storms will make landfall, how large they are and how fast the winds are.

Most of remember the tornado featured in The Wizard of Oz. That fictional storm took place in Kansas. In reality, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and other mid-west plains states are in the heart of tornado country and what has been called "Tornado Alley." 

Of all the destructive power of storms, none have the ferocity and form of tornadoes. They come down like a sword from the sky and lash out at their surroundings as though with malicious and mindful intent to destroy. These columns can reach speeds of over 300 mph and measure from a mile to many miles across. They scar the earth and destroy homes and buildings in brief moments of twisting and turning in their fury. 

They year 1925 saw such a storm rage across the mid-west bringing destruction to towns across three states from Missouri to Illinois and into Indiana. The

distance was 219 miles and the tornado traveled it in about three and half hours. Because of the straight path for 183 miles, scientists believe it might have been a family of tornados spawned by a massive supercell storm. It is one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes to hit the mid-west states.

In March of1888, a hurricane on the Atlantic coast came ashore as a blizzard that devastated states along the upper coast. Known as the Great White Hurricane, it immobilized cities such as New York with the amount of snow that fell. It paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine and on up to the Canadian Atlantic coast cities.

Brooklyn, New York in March, 1888

The snow piled high in the streets and kept people indoors for several days. Damage to spring crops like the apple trees in Connecticut ran high, and loss of life. Property damage ran to more than $20 million and 400 lives were lost, include 100 sailors across the east coast. 

Other natural disasters which took hundreds of lives and caused millions in property damage include the great earthquake in San Francisco. 

This massive earthquake occurred the morning of April 8, 1906 and took the lives of 3,4400 people and destroyed close to 80% of the city. The quake lasted only a minute, but firefighters spent four days putting out fires. Thousands were left homeless and lived in tents.

The Johnstown Flood is also listed with the top natural disasters and was the first one attended to by the American Red Cross. It became crucial in the history of natural disasters because of the lack of disaster and crisis management. A combination of heavy rain and a dam break sent 20 million gallons of water into the Mississippi River. This surge of water created a 70 foot high wave of water that traveled over fourteen miles on May 31, 1889. It destroyed everything and everyone in its path.

This is the John Schultz home in Johnstown. As it floated away down the street, a tree skewered it. Miraculously, the six people inside the home survived.

Tsunamis, volcano eruptions, typhoons are other acts of nature that wreak havoc over the land and sea. We can be thankful today for the Natural Weather Service which can warn us of such storms and disasters and allow us to find shelter and safety.

I have featured storms in several of my books. The Great White Blizzard is featured in my book Summer Dream. Have you ever been through a strorm that left behind destruction and/or death? Comment below and leave your email address for a chance at a free copy of this book.

Rachel Winston is the daughter of a minister in Briar Ridge, Connecticut. 

When a friend of her best friend's brother comes to visit, Rachel is attracted to him, but Nathan Reed wants nothing to do with a Christian, much less the daughter of a minister because of tragedy in his own family that caused him to turn from God.

After he is caught in a blizzard and nearly dies, the ministries of Rachel and her mother show him the true meaning of God's love. Now he must make amends with his family for his past and pray that Rachel will wait for him.

 

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active members of First Baptist Church. They are the parents of three sons and grandparents to eleven grandchildren and great-grandparents to six. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years teaching Freshman English at the college level. She is a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS chapter in Houston, and serves as President of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers Alive.  

A Town Under the River: Bayou Sara, Louisiana

Before the Flood Waters Came
by Martha Rogers

On the banks of the Mississippi just down from the town of St. Francisville, the once thriving port of Bayou Sara, Louisiana now lies at the bottom of the river. Bayou Sara and St. Francisville were the two main villiages of West Feliciana Parish. 

Back in the 1840's and early '50's, my great-great grandfather held a partnership in a shipping company in this town. John Whiteman loved the river and the steamboats that visited the port town daily. His five sons worked with him from the youngest Theodore to the eldest Charles. As a widower, John kept the family of boys together and working until his death in 1859.

This is a map of the area that we found in the archives at the county courthouse when we visited to do family research.

John left his half of the business to his sons, but then the Civil War came along in 1861 and the four oldest boys enlisted as did most of the young men in the area. The port and the shipping business continued in the hands of their partner, and was an important stopping point along the river at that time.

The town of Bayou Sara goes back to the early days of  French colonists in the early 1790's. At one time it was the largest antebellum Mississippi River port between Memphis and New Orleans until Natchez claimed that title. Then Great Britain took over after it defeated France in the Seven Year's War in 1763. Then at the end of the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain ceded what it called West Florida to Spain in 1783, as part of the Treaty of Paris.    

Ponce de Leon re-named the area Nueva Feliciana which means New Happy Land in Spanish. The land had unequaled flora, flowing waters and fertile soil which were the main attractions to the area. The parish itself was diverse in topography as well. In 1810 the area became part of the the U.S. and grew so fast that in 1824, the parish was divided into  two parishes with Bayou Sara on the banks of the river as the main port town that furnished supplies up to Woodville, Mississippi and around the area before the steamboats went on down to New Orleans.

In 1862, gunboat crews tried to burn the town to the ground. They did destroy much of it, but no lives were lost, and the town rebuilt. 

Despite this tragedy, an unusual event involving the Union and the Confederates took place a year later. I posted about this event of the Civil War a year or so ago. It took place in Bayou Sara and St. Francisville in 1863. It is called the "Day the Civil War Stopped." On that day, Union Navy officer John E. Hart, who commanded an attack on the town of St. Francisville from his ship docked at Bayou Sara, became ill and died aboard his ship. Hart happened to be a Mason, and when Confederate officer W.W. Leake, also a Mason, learned this, he ordered the battle to stop for a Masonic funeral for Hart. In a twist of irony, he was buried in the cemetery at Grace Episcopal Church, the same church and town as had been under attack by his orders. This is a picture of John Hart.

The town thrived as a port, but after the war, my great-grandfather Manfred and his brothers sold their interest in the shipping company to their partner and moved away from Bayou Sara. Manfred came to Texas where he practiced medicine until his death in the 1890's.

The town survived the war through the efforts of Jewish emigrants who fled religious persecution in Germany. They settled there and made important contributions to commerce in the lean years following the war. 

The town also survived hurricanes and the flood of 1912. Although businesses and homes were flooded, the waters receded and the town recovered.


 Then, in the spring of 1927, the town finally met its match. The Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers were swollen from months of rainfall that still saw no end. In late April the waters swelled to the point that by May, the two rivers burst through their levees sending mud and water into businesses, homes, and farmland on the banks and on across Louisiana where thousands had to flee the rising waters. Thousands were left homeless, and were never able to return.

This book commemorates the Great Flood

This event, known simply as the Great Flood of 1927 would change the shape of Louisiana forever. Along the banks of West Feliciana Parish, the waters completely covered the town of Bayou Sara and never receded. That port now lies at the bottom of the Mississippi River. You can drive down from St. Francisville to the river and catch a ferry to take you across the broad expanse of water to the other side. Other small towns tried to rebuild, but some never reached the same life they once had.

This marker stands to let others know about the history of the town and port of Bayou Sara.

As we crossed the Mississippi River from the landing to the other side, I thought of my ancestors and the business and home they had now being under all that water. It's a strange feeling to know that a once thriving town is under the water where you are boarding a ferry.

My novel, Love Stays True is set in that area and tells the story of my great-grandfather Manfred and his sweetheart, my great-grandmother Sally Dyer.

In April 1865, the day following the surrender at Appomattox, Manfred McDaniel Whiteman and his brother, Edward, are released in an exchange of prisoners. They are given a few provisions, and they begin a long journey to their home in Bayou Sara, Louisiana.

At home Sallie Dyer is waiting word of her beloved Manfred. Though just a young girl when Manfred left, Sallie has grown into a caring young woman who is determined to wait for her love--despite her father’s worries that she is wasting her life on someone who may never come home and suggests a local young man now home from the war.

On their journey Manfred and his brother encounter storms and thieves and are even thrown in jail. Will he make the journey home before someone else claims Sallie’s hand?  https://amzn.to/2CtsizH

Martha Rogers is a free-lance writer and multi-published author from Realms Fiction of Charisma Media and Winged Publications. She was named Writer of the Year at the Texas Christian Writers Conference in 2009. She is a member of ACFW and writes the weekly Verse of the Week for the ACFW Loop. ACFW awarded her the Volunteer of the Year in 2014. Her first electronic series from Winged Publications, Love in the Bayou City of Texas, debuted in the spring of 2015.  Martha is a frequent speaker for writing workshops and the Texas Christian Writers Conference. She is a retired teacher and lives in Houston with her husband, Rex. Their favorite pastime is spending time with their twelve grandchildren and five, soon to be six great-grandchildren.