September 19, 1947

 

 

Katrina was not the first storm to breach the infamous 17th Street Canal. This image shows one of several breaks in the canal's levee caused by the hurricane of 1947

when the levees broke on the Jefferson Parish side, flooding wide areas of Metairie. Portions of the Orleans Parish lakefront and Gentilly also flooded in this storm. 

(Text and photo from the New Oleans Public Library)

 

The Weather Bureau forecast office in Miami, while operating with the military, named this hurricane "George". Naming began in the Pacific Fleet during World War II as a method of discerning one storm from another. This system of naming was unofficially continued by the Weather Bureau until 1953, without being highly publicized, This hurricane was also known as the "Fort Lauderdale Hurricane" and the "1947 Hurricane".

 

On September 18, the hurricane entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the Florida Panhandle, but later its track moved farther west than expected, ultimately leading to a landfall southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. Upon making landfall, the storm killed 34 people on the Gulf Coast of the United States and produced a storm tide as high as 15.2 ft, flooding millions of square miles and destroying thousands of homes. The storm was the first major hurricane to test Greater New Orleans since 1915, and the widespread flooding that resulted spurred flood-protection legislature and an enlarged levee system to safeguard the flood-prone area. In all, the powerful storm killed 51 people and caused $110 million (1947 US$) in damage.

 

On September 19, the hurricane moved ashore over Saint Bernard Parish as a high-end Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph. The hurricane quickly weakened as it moved over the New Orleans metropolitan area, although its strong winds gusted to 125 mph in New Orleans.

 

The center of the storm, estimated at the time to have been 25 mi  wide, passed directly over the business district of New Orleans between 1530 and 1700 UTC.  No other storm would pass so close to downtown New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Before the eye arrived, wind instruments at Moisant Airport were disabled after just having registered sustained winds of 90 mph.. Due to the increasing northerly winds, water over-topped sections of the levees on Lake Pontchartrain, leaving some lakefront streets submerged “waist deep,” above the 3-ft delimiter. As communications failed during the calm eye, the Weather Bureau office in Fort Worth, Texas, assumed the duties of the New Orleans office by broadcasting advisories to the public. During the eye, atmospheric pressure in New Orleans dropped as low as 968.9 mb by 1649 UTC.

 

A large part of Greater New Orleans was flooded, with 2 ft of water shutting down Moisant Field and 6 ft  of water in parts of Jefferson Parish. The storm surge in Louisiana peaked at 9.8–11.2 ft (3.0–3.4 m) at Shell Beach on Lake Borgne and at 11.5 ft  in Ostrica. The surge over-topped the 9-ft-tall Orleans Parish seawall, built by the Orleans Levee Board in the 1920s to prevent a repeat of the 1915 hurricane there, and spread water over 9 sq mi of the parish, as far from Lake Pontchartrain as Gentilly Ridge. Parts of Jefferson Parish were flooded for as long as two weeks.  Subsidence settled behind the levees, leaving “topographic bowls” containing up to 6 ft  of water, to be excavated by dredging and pumping the water back into Lake Pontchartrain. Saint Bernard and Plaquemines parishes were also inundated by an 11-ft storm surge, though mainly sparsely populated areas were affected.

A storm tide of up to 15.2 ft  was reported along the western half of the Mississippi coastline, causing heavy damage in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi. The recorded tides in these communities were the highest ever recorded until Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 hurricane in 1969 and the strongest hurricane to strike the United States with sustained winds of 190 mph, produced tides of up to 21.7 ft (6.6 m). Although the storm had weakened by its second landfall, the hydrology of the region makes it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. 12 people were killed in Louisiana and 22 in Mississippi. In both states combined, the Red Cross reported that the storm destroyed 1,647 homes and damaged 25,000 others, with the majority, up to 90%, of the destroyed having been due to water. In New Orleans, the storm produced an estimated 1947 USD$100,000,000 worth of damage to the city. Barometric pressures as low as 971.6 mb (28.69 inHg) and sustained winds as high as 96 mph (154 km/h), equivalent to Category 2 intensity, were reported as far inland as Baton Rouge.

 

After this storm, the United States Congress approved the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Project to assist ongoing efforts to increase the height of the existing levee along the lakeshore; to bolster the existing seawall in Orleans Parish, an 8-ft-high  levee was erected along lakeside Jefferson Parish. (WIKI) 

Hurricane Rita Evacuation
Monday, September 19, 2005

Ellis Louis Marsalis Sr. Dies
September 19, 2004

In 1943 Ellis Louis Marsalis Sr. converted a chicken barn at 110 Shrewsbury Road at the river (across the street from what is now The Rivershack) into the 40-room Marsalis' Motel complete with a swimming pool, restaurant, and lounge.  Also known as Marsalis Mansion, and Marsalis Tourist Home, from 1943 to 1986 it was one of the only motels open to African Americans traveling to New Orleans.  Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Ray Charles, and other prominent civil rights activists, politicians, and musicians stayed there along with thousands of  lesser known Black travelers.  Marsalis was, himself, active in promoting equal rights in his community and served as president of the Nationwide Hotel Association.

In 1933, he  married Florence Robertson, whom he had met while enrolled in night school.  They had two children, .Yvette Washington and Ellis Jr.  In 1936, Ellis Sr. and William Wicker's Esso gas station at Eighth Street and Howard Avenue was the first African American-owned station in the area.  While managing the hotel he promoted positive change in the community by organizing the Boosters Club, which registered African American voters throughout New Orleans.  He was an active member of the local Republican Party who was elected in 1967 (the year he also expanded the motel and added The Broaster House restaurant to it) to serve on the Republican Executive Committee and served as its treasurer.  He was a delegate to The Republican Presidential Convention of 1964.  .In 1969 he was a a member of the Advisory Committee of the Social Welfare Planning Council.   He assisted David Treen's successful 1982 campaign for Louisiana Governor. . He helped finance the education of Ernest Nathan Morial ("Dutch"), the first Black student to attend the Louisiana State University Law School, and who became the first Black mayor of New Orleans. Marsalis also played a role in the election of Judge Lionel Collins, the first Black Judge of the 24th Judicial District Court, in Gretna, Louisiana.

His daughter Yvette Marsalis Washington helped him run the motel after her mother's death in 1973.  Ellis Jr. become an excellent jazz pianist and music professor who mentored gifted young New Orleans musicians including Harry Connick Jr.. His grandsons trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford, trombonist Delfeayo, and drummer Jason are renowned musicians.

The achievements earned by Ellis Marsalis and like-minded civil rights activists led to the demise of the hotel -- which was no longer needed as a haven for black travellers.  Marsalis's Mansion Motel closed on September 25, 1986,  demolished in July 1993, and its property sold in July 2006.  It remains an empty lot across the street from The Rivershack. 

Active in St. James A.M.E. Church,  the Dryades Street Y.M.C.A., a 32nd-degree member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and patriarch to one of New Orleans' most celebrated musical families Mr. Marsalis passed away at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital on September 19, 2004 at the age of 96. 

September 19, 1943 -- Times-Picayune

Krauss Company, War Bond Calvalcade of Stars at City Park Stadium, W.T Grant Company, Reuter's Seed Company, & Rubenstein's.

 New Orleans Jazz Club's annual Jazz Festival
September 19, 1954  

The New Orleans Jazz Club's annual Jazz Festival on September 19, 1954 at the Municipal Auditorium included Bourbon Street performers pianist Walter "Fats" Pinchon, Sharkey Bonano and his Band, and Papa Celestin and his band as well as the Middlewest Dixieland Band for the show which benefited Crippled Children's Hospital.