Page 104 - my-people-abbie-harris-beck

THE FLOOD

The rains came, the rivers were coming out of their banks. The rain still came and
everyone was afraid that the dam at Elba would break. The rain still came. The people in
Geneva began to get worried. The ones with stores began to move their merchandise to
higher ground. Mama said it would never go in our house, it never had. A flood was
coming and I had heard stories about the big flood in 1916. Fish were found in the Post
Office boxes.
I was so excited. I helped the Millers pack a truck to take their groceries to their
home. Mama came at 10 o'clock and said I had to come home the water had gotten to the
servants house in the back yard and had to get out. It was in our garden. Mama said she
needed to lie down a few minutes and for me to get a stick and put it in the ground when
the water reached it, pull it up and put it further ahead. We had a boarder named Mr.
Odem, he was the game warden. He was very anxious about the water when I told mama
that the water was at our back steps. Mr. Odem said "I"m leaving". He had been listening
to the radio and the news was that you could still pass on the bridge but not for long.
Later I learned that he was Katheryn Buchinsky's daddy. Mr. Odem had told me one time
that he had a red headed daughter about my age. He had stayed at our house many times,
mama got up and said we had better put things on the beds just in case the water got to
the top of the floor. Annie Laura and I helped mama put things on the high beds. At day
light water was coming in our house. The Alabama Power Company boys were boarding
with us. They had finished moving the office in the power company and came to help us.
They moved the piano to the church, also some of the small living room chairs. The water
was knee deep in our house and real swift. We grabbed a few clothes and got in the car
and headed for Samson. Some one said the dam in Elba had broken. The water was
coming to Geneva and it did. The water came over our house, and some one told mama
that they couldn't see her house at all, only the 5 chimneys.