Remembering a Little Rain on May 3, 1978

Forty-six years ago, May 3, 1978. To promote the potential of solar energy, Washington declared the date would be ‘National Sun Day.’ New Orleans had other ideas.

We were married less than a year...living in a third-floor apartment on Napoleon Avenue near the uptown Garden District. I took the bus to my job downtown and occupied a cubicle on the 23rd floor when the rain started.

View From our Third Floor Apartment (3 May 1978)

In the humid sub-tropical Gulf coast of Louisiana, rain is common. Summer storms regularly boil up in the heat and downpours can be briefly intense. New Orleans recognized the need for advanced drainage-related infrastructure long ago. The city is in a saucer and much of it is below sea level. It is bounded by levees and floodwalls with the world’s largest centrifugal pumps installed to drain rainwater away from the streets and sewers. On this day, we learned that even the largest pumps can be overwhelmed.

Over ten inches of rain fell in six hours. It was enough to disable the elevators in my building so I walked down to find a bite at lunchtime, walked up and back down again to walk home since bus service was no longer available. This was not too difficult as the water was less than a foot deep along my route. Remember what we [re-]learned after Hurricane Katrina. The older neighborhoods of New Orleans are closer to the Mississippi River and its natural levee is elevated higher than the lowlands away from the river.

However, the last fifty feet to the apartment was challenging. New Orleans boulevard streets generally slope away from the medians. I had to wade through water over my waist to get to the stairs. All news reports to the contrary, I did not encounter snakes and alligators at any time.

Napoleon Avenue as the Rain Let Up (3 May 1978)

The multi-lane boulevard naturally slopes away from

 the grass median. When floods threaten, experienced citizens park

 their vehicles on the medians. Our car was parked on the far side, 

behind that blue pickup. It floated off the street onto 

the sidewalk…water well above the windshield.

We did lose the car…a 1973 Pinto…yes, one of the ‘Molotov Cocktail’ models. Some called it “The barbeque that seats four.” Ironic that a car notorious for incinerating would die by drowning. 

Closed Today (3 May 1978)

Street-level businesses did not fare well. Note the door 

with no glass. The sub and pizza joint on the ground 

floor was flooded. Since we were on a main thoroughfare 

and next door to a hospital, there was no shortage of 

buses and emergency vehicles that were big enough to 

roll through the waters, thereby creating waves that 

further damaged the properties.

I remember the aftermath of this event and how it was referred to as a 100-year storm, suggesting the long odds of it happening. Then there was another 100-year rainfall a year later. In 1989, 18 inches of rain fell in twelve hours. In 1995, 24 inches of rain fell over two days. In 2017, between forty and sixty inches of rain was recorded in nearby Texas when Hurricane Harvey made landfall.

I can understand why we no longer refer to 100- or 500-year weather events. The climate has changed.