LOUISIANA 1927

What Has Happened Down Here Is The Wind Have Changed
Clouds Roll In From The North And It Started To Rain
Rained Real Hard And Rained For A Real Long Time
Six Feet Of Water In The Streets Of Evangeline
The River Rose All Day
The River Rose All Night
Some People Got Lost In The Flood
Some People Got Away Alright
The River Have Busted Through Cleard Down To Plaquemines
Six Feet Of Water In The Streets Of Evangelne

There really hasn't been a decent flood song since Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927 from his masterpiece album Good Ol' Boys (1974), released fifty years ago. It’s an almost impossible task because Newman addressed the subject so effectively that it still resonates whenever a similar catastrophic weather event to the one described in his song occurs in America.

Now, with the recent (and ongoing) devastation from Hurricane Helene in the southeastern U.S., Florida braces for the potentially larger and more powerful Storm Milton, expected to make landfall on Wednesday, October 9th, prompting mass evacuations.

When Newman wrote about the 1927 river floods that ravaged Mississippi, destroying levees and ruining millions of acres while costing hundreds of lives, he highlighted not only the human toll but also the political indifference, exemplified by President Calvin Coolidge’s seemingly detached response to the sheer scale of the disaster.

President Coolidge Came Down In A Railroad Train
With A Little Fat Man With A Note-Pad In His Hand
The President Say, "Little Fat Man Isn't It A Shame What The River Has
Done To This Poor Crackers Land."

More recently, in 2005, when New Orleans faced the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, there was a similar outcry against FEMA under the slow and seemingly unresponsive George W. Bush administration. The lasting power of Newman's song became evident once again as it emerged as an unofficial anthem for Katrina victims, linking past and present tragedies while highlighting government neglect, as well as class and race issues in disaster response. Newman performed the song at numerous benefit concerts to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims, while Aaron Neville’s cover version was also featured in Katrina telethon footage to encourage donations from the public.

One hopes Milton will not be equally devastating, though the outlook is troubling.