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Stories. May 9, 1968. The Time It Never Stopped Raining.

7/8/2010

19 Comments

 
Picture
One of Elmer Kelton's most famous novels was "The Time It Never Rained," a fictionalization of the drought of the early 1950s. Midland has had her share of droughts in her first 125 years. There have been at least four of note. The year 2010 is not one of those drought years. From our deluge in May to the recent week's plentiful rainfall, we have more than doubled what we normally receive in the first six months of the year.

If you talk to any longtime MIdlander about May 's rainfall, don't make the mistake of saying, 'Boy, that's as hard as I ever remember it raining." Like I made the mistake of saying. Because if you say that to someone who's been here for over 40 years, you'll get an even bigger memory: The Flood of 1968.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram's Centennial edition, this was the way it was on May 9, 1968:

"Five inches were recorded in a two-hour period on the morning of May 9, 1968. Accompanied by damaging hail and high winds, an estimated 10-12 total inches submerged the virtually paralyzed city. A man's life was lost and the city sustained millions of dollars worth of property loss and damage.

"A salesman from Lubbock was killed when a torrent of water swept his car off U.S. Highway 80, slamming it into a railroad trestle with the man trapped inside.

"An estimated 500 homes in the fashionable northwest section of town were flooded. Boats were used to rescue stranded persons while fire trucks stalled in the rivers of water known as city streets.

"While the Texas Highway Patrol closed access to Highway 80 and Interstate 20 to keep traffic out of Midland, the Texas State Guard and Odessa emergency units assisted in rescues and provided aid.

"Across town at Parkview Hospital an expectant mother was experiencing labor pains in the lobby while attendants tried to find a way to get her to Midland Memorial Hospital, where there was an obstetrics unit.

"The basement of the post office on Wall Avenue was flooded and 10,000 pounds of rubber bands floated down the streets of downtown Midland.

"Two Junior League members were stranded in the Next-to-New Shop on E. Illinois Ave., with a couple of other people seeking refuge. The group made a 'HELP' sign out of newspapers which they posted in the window and then waited on counter tops for help to arrive. A human chain was formed to pull them to safety."

Rain is in the forecast for Midland through this Saturday. It's not the historic kind. But it's enough to get you wet.

Source: Midland Reporter-Telegram Centennial Edition, c. 1985.

Photo: Ida Jo Moore Park on 'A' St., already closed because of renovations, would have also likely had to close because of the flooding rains from May 2010.
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   Jimmy Patterson's book, "A History of Character: The Story of Midland, Texas" is currently in the research phase. It will be published in the Winter of 2011-2012.


19 Comments
tina
7/8/2010 12:06:37 am

Great story! I believe my sister was carried on dad's shoulders back home after she was "picked up" at school during this deluge!

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Dawn Lofton Woods
8/15/2016 06:26:21 am

I, too, was "rescued" along with my nephews from Bowie Elementary School when my dad and my brother-in-law waded in from 6 blocks away, where they parked the car, to come get us. Wadley Barron Park flooded and flooded the school grounds. We lived on Osage, just off Avenue A and our home was filled with 3 inches of water. Our neighbors, who lived on the corner of A and Osage, had a 2-story house and that house flooded to the 2nd floor! A few days after the flood, the radio announced that a baby duck had been found in the Wilco Building downtown. It was my friend's duck from Osage street which swam away from the flooded 2-story house! Early on the morning of the flood, my mother, looking out and seeing the dark clouds moving in, said that it looked like a good day for a big pot of home-made soup. She put a big stock pot of soup on to cook and that pot ended up feeding 3 families that evening! We evacuated our house, along with the pot of soup, to my sister's home on Storey street where we spent the next several days.

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Kelly Coleman
7/8/2010 12:17:54 am

I remember the flood well! I was in the 6th grade and actually swam down 'A' street with my friend Kerry Eckert to get home! Kerry's house was on the corner of 'A' and Scharbauer Drive. It was almost completely submereged with just the roof still above the water line. Needless to say, they lost everything. Unbelievable day!

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Marlee
7/8/2010 01:11:10 am

My stepfather was one of the ones that got his boat out to navigate down the streets and help people. Can't wait to read the book!

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Jim M
7/8/2010 03:37:29 am

I was in the eighth grade at Goddard Jr. High. It was as if we were on an island, with the school totally surrounded by about 4 feet of water. I waded out to the ditch (where the draw is now a couple of blocks off of Wadley and since been widened). This is where we (the “Ditch Gang”) usually meet every morning before school and in the afternoon. From there, about ten of us scaled fences and rooftops to get across. I do not remember how we ever got across Wadley, but it was something to behold. Most of the kids from Goddard were held back on the campus and did not get home until about 5 or 6pm by bus. By then, the waters had pretty well subsided on the major thoroughfares.

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Tommy Grace
7/8/2010 08:09:57 am

I remember being stuck at Goddard until 6 or so in the evening. Finally someone in a 4 wheel drive pick up picked a bunch of us up and took us home. There were boats coming out to the school and I remember seeing a car stalled on Haynes, all you could see was the roof.
In between periods you could see the progress of water slowly creeping up to the front of the school. Our house on Stanolind had about a foot high water line on the front of it and in the garage Luckily my mom had stayed home and was sweeping water out the back door as quick as it was coming in the front. A neighbor came over and opened the side and back gates to help the water flow. It was quite a day and talked about for many years to follow.

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Lucy link
7/8/2010 08:25:40 am

Yup. Dad came to pick up my brother at school only to find that I was the only trooper to go that morning. At one point he placed me on his shoulders and held on to cars to keep from being swept away with rushing water.

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Laura Wettstein Wilson
7/8/2010 10:13:04 pm

That was an amazing day! My father was playing in the Tall City Golf Tournment that morning, mom was watching him but left to come to Hillander to pick me up. Right as we pulled out on to Wadley the rain and hail was so hard Mom tried to pull off but it was a wave of water that swept the car and carried us from just before Garfield all the way to Whitney where we hit a telephone and stopped in the middle of Wadley. Mother was amazing! While we washed down "river Wadley" she opened the convertible top a little and flashed the headlights on the car until the elect power was gone. By God's grace, a Coke a Cola employee was trapped at the gas station at Wadley/Garfield and saw the lights flashing and together with the stations tow truck and employee they came after us. Going around, they came up Whitney and with ropes and the tow line swam across to rescued us with massive debrie rapidly floating past. Because mom had opened the top we were able to get out. The car was almost sumberged. They tide ropes around us and carried us to safety. What true heros! Staying calm and thinking straight, my mom (along with the rescue guys) truly saved our lives!

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Lee Ann Jolly Lewis link
7/11/2010 12:28:24 am

Like others who have written about the flood, I too was a student stranded at Goddard that day. But it's what came afterward that I remember most - namely the FROGS that sprang miraculously from Grafa Park (and others around the city), giving Midland its own version of the 2nd plague from the book of Exodus! Grownups living near those parks lamented the incessant deep bellowy croaking that went on for days, but for a true critter-lover like me, wading into the murky water and scooping up dozens of gumball-sized tadpoles was a dream come true!

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Jeanne (Glass) Griffith
7/12/2010 03:54:07 am

I remember it well! I was in the 6th grade at James Bowie and was able to walk around the flooded area to get home. It was surreal with this huge lake where rooftops peeked up from the water surface. My brother was air-boated from San Jacinto School. Then came the frogs and the stench of stagnate water that seemed to permeate the city for weeks.

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Curt Buthman link
7/19/2010 10:07:03 pm

Yup, I was 9 years Old and remember watching Boats go down Wadley. And they were big boats, not just the Aluminum kind. And The house on the corner of A Street Park with the two story Deck was up to the second story and the people were on their deck just above the water. Wow, thanks for the memory!

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Jim Hansen
7/19/2010 10:17:17 pm

I made it home from Goddard, but then had to go back to Emerson to get my little sister! On the way, I saw Mitch Cappadona kill a skunk that was swimming at him in the water.

We spent many days helping a neighbor on the lower end of Marmon Drive save their possessions.

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Rob Heckathorne
5/8/2020 07:13:20 pm

Just saw your posting from 7/19/2010 tonight, the eve of the 52 anniversary of The Flood. I happened to be reminiscing about it to my wife, Kathy. Certainly, that was a day that will be remembered in Midland lore for many many years.

I had never heard the story of Mitch Cappadona. I ended up being bussed to Fannin Ele. around 7:00PM and stayed with the Pollard family (on W. Cimmaron) for several days until our house was dried out.

Be well my friend. Rob Heckathorne

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Leah Richardson Pittman
7/20/2010 12:41:17 am

My brother and I jumped onto a portion of fence that was floating down Dengar- we were like Huck Finn going down that street it was all good til our mom saw us pass by the house.

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Angela Tompkins Stengl
7/28/2010 03:28:27 am

I was in Kindergarten at Hillander on what became the "River Wadley". My teacher, Mrs. Huckabee, told us the angels were bowling in heaven as we were all a little nervous about the thunder and lightning. My mother picked me up and were the last ones to "float" across the draw heading north on Garfield. I remember looking out at the water almost up to the window. My mother's knuckles were white as she kept her foot on the gas so the car wouldn't stall.

Although we didn't know each other at the time my husband, Burgess, was across the hall in the other kindergarten class. He was in a carpool that got all the kids home except for him. He remembers having to get in their closet with a mattress. Later, his dad was able to wade across the street, put him up on his shoulders, and wade back across to the car. We both have different memories of a day that marked both of our childhoods.

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Bill Morris
7/29/2010 05:30:26 am

What a day at Goddard JHS! Goddard was kind of an adventure that year anyway, but the flood was amazing. I caught a ride home with a friend's parents, with water coming up through the floor, and learned later that my parents were trying to find me. (Yes, we did survive without cell phones, but how?)

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Susan Sneed Alexander
8/11/2010 03:19:44 pm

I was in the second grade. I remember Kimber Whitaker lived across the street from the park and her family hurriedly moved the piano up the steep stairs to protect it from the rising water We both took piano lessons from Mrs. Goff. The recital was the next week. I remember the feeling of injustice at the recital the next week. Kimber didn't have to play anything because she hadn't been able to get to her piano.

I remember all the frogs as well. The boys next door took an aluminum trash can in a little red wagon down to the A Street park and filled it to the top with tadpoles and brought them home. There were little frogs every where.

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J Allen
4/1/2011 04:15:28 am

I also was a student at Goddard Jr. High. It was a day to remember, my Father owned Town and Country Cleaners, my mother was trying to get to Goddard with all of the other parents. I remember water seeping through the doors of her Oldsmobile delta 88. All of my family members called our home for an update on my safety. Wish we still had families like that.

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Lynda Hannah-McNatt
11/25/2011 11:40:28 am

I was 6 years old in May 1968. We lived on Apperson Drive and I remember that day very well. We had 27 inches of water in our backyard and about an inch and a half of water inside of our house. My dad was stopped by the police on Big Spring and Wadley and was told he could not drive any further. So he waded and caught a boat ride to our neighborhood. Then my dad and mom worked until 2 in the morning to keep the water from doing any more damage. I have survived other weather diasters but the flood will always be in my memories.

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    About the Blog

    Welcome, and thanks for your interest in what will be a rewarding trip through our shared past. This "History of Character" blog is only the beginning. A book by the same name -- "A History of Character: The Story of Midland, Texas" -- will be published September 2014. Through this blog you'll be able to track the progress of the project and learn along with the book's author, Jimmy Patterson. If you have stories to share that you think deserve mention in the history of our city, drop an email to historyofcharacter@gmail.com.

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