Sauvé's Crevasse was a

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually earthen and that often runs parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastl ...

failure in May 1849 that resulted in flooding much of

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

In May 1849 the Mississippi reached the highest water level in this area observed in twenty-one years. Some seventeen miles (27 km) up river from the city of New Orleans in

Jefferson Parish Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

lay a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

belonging to Pierre Sauvé, in what is now

River Ridge, Louisiana River Ridge is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 13,591 in 2020. History The land that is now River Ridge was developed ...

. There, on the afternoon of May 3, the levee gave way. At once it was seen to be impossible to stem the raging waters. People in New Orleans hoped that the flood would find its way into

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...

by some channel or the other, before reaching the city. But the swamp rapidly filled; the water approached the outskirts of the town; and it was quickly too late to throw up any adequate defenses. By May 15 the water was at

Rampart Street Rampart Street (french: rue du Rempart) is a historic avenue located in New Orleans, Louisiana. The section of Rampart Street downriver from Canal Street is designated as North Rampart Street, which forms the inland or northern border of the Fr ...

. The First Municipality went to work on a small levee which lay along the lower bank of the

Carondelet Canal The Carondelet Canal, also known as the Old Basin Canal, was a canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., operating from 1794 into the 1920s – nearly 135 years. Construction of the canal began in June 1794, on the orders of the Spanish Gover ...

, and raised it sufficiently to shut out the flood from that part of the city. Some of the water was drained via the canal into

Bayou St. John Bayou St. John () is a bayou within the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Bayou as a natural feature drained the swampy land of a good portion of what was to become New Orleans, into Lake Pontchartrain. In its natural state, it extended much ...

and thence into Lake Pontchartrain. This protected much of the city below the Canal. This was a significant success, which kept the flooding out of the Faubourg St. John, Marigny, and other downriver portions of the city. By providing an outlet for the waters, the action prevented deeper and more widespread flooding above the Canal. However, most of what is now

Uptown New Orleans Uptown is a section of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, encompassing a number of neighborhoods (including the similarly-named and smaller Uptown area) between the French Quarter and the Jeffers ...

and the

New Orleans Central Business District The Central Business District (CBD) is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. A subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD area, its boundaries, as defined by the City Planning Commission, are Iberville, Decatur and C ...

were badly flooded. The water spread from the low-lying "back of town" into the higher ground closer to the River, and attained its highest point on May 30. In the CBD, floodwater reached Bacchus (Baronne) Street from the upper limits of Lafayette to Canal. Where the ground was low, floodwaters extended into Carondelet. Further Uptown, between Louisiana and Napoleon avenues, the flooding stopped just short of Magazine Street. In Carrollton, above Canal Avenue (Carrollton Avenue), the waters reached to Forth Street (Oak), and below to Burthe. Waring & Cable (Social Statistics of Cities, Reports on New Orleans) reported, "About 220 inhabited squares were flooded, more than 2,000 tenements were surrounded by water, and a population of near 12,000 souls either driven from their homes or living an aquatic life of much privation and suffering." This figure may be only for the city of New Orleans as then constituted, with its upper limit at Felicity Street. Much of what later became known as

was then the separate towns of Lafayette, Bouligny, Jefferson, and Carrollton. For weeks, the efforts to close the crevasse had proven unavailing. Then two engineers,

George T. Dunbar George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

and Surgi, undertook the task, and with carte blanche as to methods and materials, succeeded after seventeen days in stanching the flood on June 20, 1849. The waters did not disappear until nearly a month later. By June 22, the principal streets were clear again. Heavy rains washed away the mud deposited by the flood, and the city began to resume its normal aspect. Public property had suffered extensive damage, particularly in the Second Municipality (what is now the CBD and

Lower Garden District Lower Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Central City/Garden District Area, its boundaries as defined by the New Orleans City Planning Commission are: St. Charles Avenue, Felicity, Prytania, Thalia, ...

). The city and homeowners had to replace pavements, gutters and gutter-bridges. In 1850 the Second Municipality found it necessary to levy a special tax of $400,000 to offset "actual expenditures on streets, wharves and crevasses." Somewhat tardily, the municipal council erected a levee on Felicity Street, from the point where the

Claiborne Canal Claiborne may refer to: People Surname *Billy Claiborne (1860–1882), western outlaw *Lindy Boggs (Corinne Claiborne Boggs, 1916–2013), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana; U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican *Chris Claiborne ...

intersected the

New Basin Canal The New Basin Canal, also known as the New Canal and the New Orleans Canal, was a shipping canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating from 1830s into the 1940s. History The New Basin Canal was constructed by the New Orleans Canal and Banking Comp ...

, to the corner of Apollo (Carondelet) Street. While New Orleans has suffered numerous floods large and small in its history, the flood of 1849 was of a more disastrous scale than any save the flooding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (see

Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and nav ...

). Katrina flooded a larger total urban area, but much of what would later become the city of New Orleans and its suburbs in Jefferson Parish was still swampland in May 1849. The water level of the Mississippi River which flooded the city in 1849 was higher than that of Lake Pontchartrain, which flowed into the city after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This is particularly evident in areas of Uptown. Higher water levels were recorded in certain places in 1849 than when they were flooded again in 2005. Also, the flooding of 1849 extended into a significant part of Uptown that remained dry during the flooding after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans has not experienced flooding directly from the Mississippi River since Sauvé's Crevasse, although it came dangerously close during the

Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with inundated in depths of up to over the course of several months in early 1927. The uninflated cost of the damage has been estimate ...

Sources

* Much of this article was adapted from ''History of New Orleans'' by John Kendall, 1922. This work is now in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

from expired copyright.

External links

Times-Picayune article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sauve's Crevasse 1849 floods 1849 in Louisiana May 1849 events June 1849 events 1849 natural disasters in the United States Mississippi River floods 19th century in New Orleans Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

See also

Sources

External links