John Shearer: Remembering Horrific Chattanooga Flood Of 50 Years Ago

This month marks exactly a half century since the memorable flood that inundated the Chattanooga area and other parts of the region.

As a result of nature’s faucet unleashing at least eight inches of heavy rainwater from March 15-17, 1973, Chattanooga for a brief period looked more like Venice, Italy.

The event is believed to be the worst flood here in post-TVA dam system history and second only to the famous 1867 one that occurred two years after the Civil War ended in terms of volume of water that landed on or passed through Chattanooga over a brief period.

While the immediate Chattanooga area does not usually get hit with tornadoes or even snowstorms like other parts of the country – even though the famous Blizzard of 1993 occurred 30 years ago this month – it has been the scene of some serious floods. That is, despite the 1940 opening of the Chickamauga Dam and the construction of the Brainerd Levee in the years since to prevent such catastrophes.

The Tennessee River and surrounding large creeks along with the eye-catching mountains and ridges make Chattanooga the Scenic City, but they also make it the susceptible town when it rains too much and too quickly.

That year, the rain started falling heavily on Thursday, March 15 – the Ides of March – and did not show any signs of letting up. As a result, by Friday, emergency officials realized they had a problem on their hands as area roadways quickly began flooding, causing traffic jams and delays in getting to work.

And by the time the rain stopped that Saturday on St. Patrick’s Day, Chattanoogans were seeing quite a bit of blue of water, not green. Many people had to be evacuated from such residential areas as along South Chickamauga Creek and at the Emma Wheeler Homes. Stores, businesses, and parking lots were also flooding in such places as 23^rd Street, Rossville Boulevard, Brainerd Road, Lee Highway and McBrien Road.

As a result, the merchandise in such stores as the Kmart off McBrien Road and the Red Food Store at Shallowford Road near Dalewood Junior High was greatly damaged, while the floors of the Eastgate Center were under water for a period.

Some branch banks in places like 23^rd Street, meanwhile, took on a new meaning for the word, branch.

Among the other memorable scenes, a man in a kayak was photographed by future Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Hood of the News-Free Press along Brainerd Road.

Another photo in that same area would later run in National Geographic magazine.

The newly opened Bonanza steakhouse in the Lee Highway area was also shown partially submerged in photographs, as was the Kmart.

Such golf courses as Brainerd and Valleybrook and Creeks Bend in Hixson were also mostly under water, making water polo the more likely sport to be played on them for a period.

Tragedies also resulted from the flooding. By the second day, four regional deaths connected to the heavy rains had been reported. Eric Neuman, 15, fell into a drainage ditch near Manor Drive in Brainerd as he was walking home from school with some schoolmates and drowned, as did 13-year-old Mary Alice Adams of Chickamauga after she fell into a flooded stream while walking home from school, too. Henry Russell of Marion County had an apparent heart attack while driving, and his vehicle ended up in the Sequatchie River, while a man also drowned in Loudon County closer to Knoxville.

The local animals were also threatened, as news reports said the deer at Warner Park had to be removed from their low enclosure. The buck was moved to Zooville, while the does were taken to the Humane Shelter.

As the rains continued, the water level and bad news and worry continued to rise. By Saturday afternoon, the water had begun to cover the runways at Lovell Field, forcing it to close for several days and cutting off flights in and out of the city.

Amid the chaos, shelters were set up at various places around town, including the Henry Barger School, Brainerd Junior High, Elbert Long (later the site of CSLA), Hixson Junior High, and Kirkman and Riverside high schools.

Schools that flooded included East Lake Junior High, Joseph E. Smith Elementary, Calvin Donaldson Elementary, Dalewood Junior High and the private Boyd-Buchanan School, among possibly others.

One place that did not flood, even though it was right by the Tennessee River on the low side, was the Riviera Villa apartment complex near the current Coolidge Park. Owner Herb Tabb said that when the apartments were being built a few years earlier, he had carefully talked with TVA officials to prevent the site from flooding even during a worst-case scenario.

The adjacent Little Theatre (now Chattanooga Theatre Centre) and Fehn’s Restaurant (now-razed) also did not flood.

As employees of some of the stores that had been damaged in places like Brainerd and East Ridge began to clean up and try to reopen early the next week, much of the merchandise had to be tossed out in front of some of the stores. It became very visible evidence of the ransacking by the liquid burglar called water.

Tennessee Gov. Winfield Dunn also flew over the city during the height of the flooding and said the scene looked “just unbelievable.” News reports said that one-fifth of the city was underwater.

As Chattanooga began to come to grips with what all had gone on, one article mentioned that the city in the 1940s had been trying to follow a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommendation to put some levees on the west side of Missionary Ridge. Apparently, the funding was available, but one state representative, John Chambliss, had gone against the measure, saying he did not think it was needed.

Of course, the 1973 flood would result in the construction of the Brainerd Levee and the reconstruction of parts of South Chickamauga Creek east of Missionary Ridge with federal funds a few years later.

It was later said that the 1973 flood crested at 36.9 feet above the standard reference level of 621.12 feet above sea level. TVA officials later determined that if Chattanooga had no dam system, the level would have been 52.4 feet, making it the second worst in the city’s recorded history behind only the 1867 one, which had a peak level of 58 feet. And although some serious flooding situations have occurred in Chattanooga in the years since, no levels have topped what occurred in 1973.

It was certainly a natural disaster not to be forgotten by those living in the flooded Scenic City a half century ago.

I was a seventh grader in my first year at Baylor School at the time, and we were finishing up our spring break when the rain and flood struck. My mother, Velma Shearer, had made plans for us to fly out on that Friday, I think it was, to visit her identical twin sister in Memphis.

I recall it was raining when we boarded the plane at Lovell Field for the short flight to the Bluff City. After a Saturday when I think we ate at a TGI Friday’s in Memphis during the early days of that restaurant chain – and I remember seeing people drink green-colored beer for St. Patrick’s Day – my mother got word the airport in Chattanooga was closed.

As a result, my aunt took us to the Memphis Greyhound station that Sunday morning and we fortunately were able to get bus tickets for a ride back home through North Alabama. I still remember we picked up a McCallie School boarding student in Athens, Al., and I played chess with him when that sport was the rage for us private school kids.

After fortunately getting back home safely, I was thankful our house in Valleybrook next to a creek did not flood, even though others nearby did. I went to Baylor the next day, where we learned the entire lower fields behind the school were flooded. As a result, those who played sports like baseball would have their practice disrupted for a few days until the water finally started receding.

I ran junior high track under coach Sib Evans Jr., and we practiced on the old Rike Field cinder track, now long gone, so I do not believe our plans were altered much as we ran 440s.

And memories of how that flood affected everyone’s life in Chattanooga would go around in circles in my mind as well for years to come!

I am sure numerous Chattanoogans old enough to remember the 1973 flood have plenty of memories burned in their minds as well.

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jcshearer2@comcast.net