Sisters remember 1927 flood, brace for rising tide
VIDEO - 214 people lost their lives in that flood and 637,000 were driven from their homes...
It remains one of the most devastating natural disasters in United States history, the great flood of the lower Mississippi valley in 1927. Darlene Johnson was just 9 years old at the time.
“We lived on a hill and my aunt and uncle brought us down to see the water. It was up to the highway. It was up that far,” she said.
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She doesn’t remember being afraid of grasping how destructive the rising waters were.
“We just wanted to see the water. You know how children are,” said Johnson.
Her sister, Bernice Townsend, was only 7 and remembers looking over the massive water that covered homes and farmland in Yazoo County. 214 people lost their lives in that flood and 637,000 were driven from their homes. The sisters were safe with their house set on a hill. Now at 93 and 91 years old they face another major flood.
They live in an area expected to flood from the Yazoo River in the coming weeks. Still, there is no fear or anguish from these sisters.
“I don’t think there’s nothing we can do about it. It it gets high we’re just going to have to get out,” said Johnson.
