ENID, OK - The aerial photo below is from the Klamath Falls, Oregon Herald & News Newspaper dated Oct. 12, 1973. The picture shows St. Mary's Hospital near Boggy Creek. Many cars were swept down the creek.
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1973 Enid, OK Flood Photo
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1973 ENID FLOOD PHOTOS
This was the attached article:
Hospital Evacuated
Rampaging Boggy Creek, (lowerpart of photo) flooded St. Mary's Hospital in Enid, Okla., (right center) and park at left after a 16-inch downpour Wednesday night, forcing evacuation of the hospital. The hospital, six blocks from the town square, lost its medical supplies and electricity when water rose to a foot high on the first floor. Seventy-five or more cars in parking lots around the hospital were swept away into the creek and park and some were found several blocks away. Four fatalities were confirmed and several people are still unaccounted for as search and cleanup operations continued in the stricken city where damages are expected to run into the millions. (UPI Telephoto)
1973 Enid, Oklahoma Flood Details
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There seems to be, even today, a great interest in the "great" flood of Enid, Oklahoma. We will try to gather as much information about the flood as we can and post it here. If you have any stories or photos from the flood please send them to us. Below is the information we have gathered at this time.
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The huge amount of rainfall that fell in Enid is known as the "Enid Flood". The flood took place October 10 and 11 of 1973. The storm was caused by a locally intense thunderstorm that was centered over Enid. This storm produced the greatest urban rainfall on record in Oklahoma. Rainfall accumulations were 15 to 20 inches within a 100 square mile area. A recorded 2 inches fell in 3 hours.
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The cause of the storm was a low pressure center that moved northeastward along a slowly moving cold front. These two systems stalled over north-central Oklahoma, depositing record-breaking rainfall. The 24-hour rainfall total at Enid of 15.68 inches exceeded the previous record which occurred September 3-4, 1940 (at Sapulpa). Unofficial reports have put the amount at 20 inches of rain.
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The rain in Enid actually fell in about 12 hours, with 75 percent of it falling in 4 hours. The severe flash flooding that resulted from the rainfall in Enid destroyed or severely damaged 300 homes and 40 businesses. The rainfall also contributed to nine deaths. In Garfield County alone, property damages were estimated at 8 million dollars, with damages to crops and land that climbed to some 13 million.
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Governor David Hall called Enid a disaster area and asked President Nixon for federal disaster fund to help rebuild.
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Accounts of the flood: (further comments added below)
I was ten years old, living in Enid during the flood. My sister and I were staying alone at our house on South Johnson, while our mom was bowling. My great-grandmother lived directly across the street and kept an eye on us from her front window. I remember there being a very heavy rain that lasted for hours.
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The flooding was so bad and so quick that our mom couldn't get home. My great-grandmother must have called us to come to her house because I remember crossing the street to her house and becoming completely drenched as soon as I made it to the front yard. I remember the water completely filling the street and my shoes becoming soaked in an instant.
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My grandmother asked me to go to her basement and see if there was any water coming in. I do remember that there were several areas where water was just running into her basement. We used buckets to move the water out of the basement. I'm not exactly sure where we put the water but I think we just threw it out the back door to watch it run back in again.
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That's about all I remember about the great Enid flood. We would love to hear your accounts and see any photos that you might have. Please send them to us.
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Curtis D. Tucker
I was at the bowling alley during the heavy rainfall. When we finished bowling (up the hill from the corner of W Owen K Garriott and S. Van Buren at the Trail Bowling Alley) that night I went out to the car. I looked and the water was up to the middle of the hub caps on my 67 Thunderbird. I went back inside to think about what to do. A man came in and said his car had just floated away at the corner and he had jumped out of the window. That spot was right at the corner where Walgreens stands now. The small house that is a information center was the highway patrol building and it was totally under water.
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The man (a Munsingwear Underwear salesman) asked if anyone could take him to the Ramada Inn. I said I would try so we got in and went West on Rupe and turned at each street to try to get on Owen K Garriott. The man would get out and wade up the street to test the height of the water but at every crossing the water was too high. He told me his wife would never believe this story when he got home to Tulsa. On our final try on South Garland my car finally stalled from so much water. A man in a pickup stopped, picked us up and took us back to South Johnson where a friend lived.
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We had found a safe haven from the flood until the water went down. My friend and his wife weren't quite clear on where or how I had come up with a traveling salesman whose car had floated away. We were finally able to go home by dawn and my friend took the man to the Inn. I got my car towed and went home to tell the tale to the kids.
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Ann Tucker
Your story rings very familiar. I was also 10 years old in ’73, and like Ann, we were also at the bowling alley that night. My dad bowled on a league for years. I don’t remember much about getting home, just that it was really late. Our house sat on something of a hill, so we didn’t have any damage. However, a friend had to climb out of her car near Johnson Street ( I think) and found it the next day on the banks of Meadowlake Park.
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I hadn’t thought about the flood in years. Thanks for memories (I think).
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Jodi Shumway
Flood of '73: Rita (Conrady) Buck (aerial photo/article) Richard & Ed Galbraith (train track photo)
(if you remember the 1973 Flood or were caught in it and you would like to help us do further research on this page please feel free to send us stories or photos – Thank You!)
-More Comments
June 25, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Just seen this website going through Facebook today. It is really interesting to know all of the things that go on in Enid (I live in Enid). What caught my eye was the flood of ’73 story. I didn’t live here then but had family that did and still does today. It was devastating to everyone at the time.
I also remember there being a huge hail storm here back in the seventies and it tearing up a lot of homes and vehicles. My Aunts house had a lot of windows knocked out I remember. If anyone has stories of that I would like to see it, or I could be wrong?
Anyway keep up this site it’s a very good way to see what is going on in town and I do think Enid could be just as good as Oklahoma City or Tulsa! A lot of volunteers and work would help the towns look! It is a nice town and we could have a lot of shows brought here with help of the people! Keep it up !!! Angie:)July 15, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I remember standing at the front door watching the water in the street with my sisters. We lived at the end of W. Oklahoma and everytime a car went by the water came into the house. We did better than others, at least our house was on an incline so we only got 4 inches inside.
August 24, 2010 at 1:34 am
I was born at Saint Mary’s on 9 October 1973. I grew up hearing the stories about the great flood, and my family lost a lot during that flood. My families car floated away, and my dad was one of the people trying to bail water out of the lower level of the hospital. Seeing the pictures, and reading the information, puts it all into perspective.
October 22, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I was a senior in high school during the ’73 flood. I was home with my mother and our dog. Our dog, Rascal, kept barking, so I took him off his chain and put him in a shed on our property.
We noticed that the water was getting high. Boggie Creek ran behind my parents’ house. We heard the storm sirens go off and thought it was because of the high water and saw a neighbor’s car against the bank on the opposite side of the road from our house and the noticed that the whole yard and road was just a sheet of water. Rascal had gotten out of the shed and was sitting on a chair on our front porch. My dad called from Vance (where he worked) and told us if water was coming into the house to turn the breakers off. By this time the water was coming in. It was very strange because it filled up under the house and then seemed to be coming in from every wall (inside walls too) at one time and was knee deep quickly. We tried to put things up high where the water could not get to them but to no avail. I helped my mother and the dog into the trap door to the attic (no ladder, had to scale shelves) and we watched as things were washed out of the house below us. Water level was 63″ inside the house.
We heard the fire department in a boat going down the creek (or flooded yards) near us and managed to get the attic vent opened enough to yell and wave at them. They came and rescued us in their boat and took us to high ground. It was a mess and took a long time to get the house put back into liviable shape. No flood insurance was avialable back then.
And we survived the hail storm also. I do not remember the year, but I’m pretty sure it was a few years before the flood. We had baseball to softball size hail stones. Lots of damage there too.
Raye
January 27, 2011 at 3:53 am
I lived in Drummond a small town about fifteen miles south west of Enid during the flood of ’73. We lived on the edge of Drummond next to an ancient dry lake bed. No one lived out in this large area we called: “The Flats” because of the flooding that occasionally happened there.
I’ll never forget the sound of all that rain falling on the roof – at times it was deafening. Mom and Dad were both somewhat worried too. The next morning the rain stopped. I went outside and the old dry lake had turned into a big real lake! Water was blocking about half of our driveway. I remember poking sticks into the ground at the waters edge every 30 or so minutes and watching the water rise ever so slowly. The water didn’t stop rising until about 6:00 p.m. that evening. By then, the water was up to our back porch. All this water coming right up to our house gave me a very uneasy feeling. I was so glad to see it stop rising.
I remember that after the rain all the drainage systems in Enid were widened and redesigned to handle a flash flood more effectively.Randy
February 25, 2011 at 4:16 pm
i remember the flood.i lived on south independence with my family my dad loyd,my mom genevieve.my brothers,loyd,donald,ronald and tonya. i was 13 then and im 50 now
May 11, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Robert J Rogers’ account of the 1973 flood in Enid, OK:
On that night, Rob’s dad was at the Shamrock Bowling alley and his mother and he were at home with their 2 dogs. They lived at 3102 Dwelle Drive. He was in the 11th grade at Pioneer High School. It had been raining for some time when he looked out the kitchen window and noticed that the driveway was full of water and there were cars floating by. His mother’s car, a Buick LeSabre, was floating between the houses. He realized that this wasn’t good! The water then was up to the front and back door and was coming out of the electrical outlets in the house. The water outside was higher than inside at that time. They heard on the news that people at the Trail Bowling alley were standing on tables to avoid the high water. There was then a loud banging noise, and unbeknownst to them, the back wall of the garage had floated away. The water then came pouring in the kitchen door from the garage. The water in the house within a matter of seconds went from 1 to 5 feet. The icebox went through the patio doors.Rob and his mom put the dogs on a mattress and headed to the bedroom where he kicked out a window and shimmied on a row of bushes and a stockade fence to get to the roof. He then helped his mom out of the window on the fence but she could not get her footing to get on the roof. So she started saying her goodbyes. She told him she loved him and his dad and to let her go. Rob knew he had to get her up there so for the very 1st time he cursed at her (knowing it would make her mad) and told her she was not going anywhere and to get her “*** ***” on that roof!!!!! And it worked! She was mad and she told him when she got up there he was going to get it! But she made it up on that roof!!!!
They stayed for about 45 minutes to an hour on the roof and could hear others hollering all around them. Coming east on Dwelle was a boat with about 6-7 people in it. They stopped and picked up Rob and his mom. They got almost to 30th street when the prop on the boat was knocked out. The owner of the boat asked some of the guys to grab on to anything they could to slow them down. Several tried but the water was so strong it pulled them out of the boat including Rob. This is where he waited until the waters receded. Rob could see the water stretched from the overpass of Highway 412 to Pine Manor apartments. When the water was about a foot, the guys got off the roofs and started looking for their families. Several people died on those streets that night. Rob’s dogs were lucky and survived.
He later found out from his mom that the boat ended up on the roof of the last house on Hillcrest before it opened up into the big creek. Everyone got out on that roof. But then lightening hit the house next to them and several people were burned.
Rob also saw 2 guys in a canoe in the Valleyview addition that were trying to paddle but when the main water current hit that canoe you could see the look of sheer terror in their eyes (there was a streetlight working near them at the time). They paddled so fast and hard and got out of that canoe somewhere near Pine Manor apartments.
What a story! And this is not the last of his nine lives!!! There is more!
October 2, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Me and my wife spent the night across the temporary river from previous story by Curtis Tucker. I worked for Stalcup Imports at 423 west Broadway and was working late that night when the rain started busting the seams of the inside drains in our building My wife and I got everything off of the floors in all of the offices and then decided to go home. We lived straight south on Jefferson street (1200 block south) but there was a temporary river in out way. after driving around in our chevy truck for about 1/2 of an hour and deciding that there was no way home we spent the night in the parking lot of Pizza Inn which was then on the very bank of the river stretching south to the Texaco 2 1/2 blocks south.
January 3, 2012 at 1:43 pm
I also remember the flood. I was around 10 when it happened and living on the street that ran next to Hardees right off Van Buren. (I no longer live in Enid) Of Course the houses on that street are set high up off the street so there was no flooding in the house. I remember I had been out with my mom and right as we got back home it had started raining really hard. She wanted to wait in the car for the rain to slow but it never did and finally we made our way into the house. The next morning I remember lots of kids playing out in the water in the streets. I think about the flood from time to time which is what has brought me to the website today.
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I was 2 yrs old when that flood hit, But I remember standing in the entry way of our house waiting for my dad to come home. We lived at 510 nth harding. The street was flooded and the front yard and driveway was half under water. I remember watching my dad comeing down the street in his company 4 wheel drive truck and the water was up to his windows. I’ve never seen anything like it since.
I did’t live in Enid at the time of the flood. But my grandfather ( Oley McCoy) told me a little about that day and he said that there was a zoo . It was by government springs park. He said most of the animals died that night. Any one know more about this?
Hi Joanna, there was a zoo and we are collecting info and pictures of it here https://enidbuzz.com/works/monkey-pit-enid-zoo/
According to what we know the zoo closed in 1972 before the flood occurred.
I was living at 121 N. Burdel Lane during the flood of 73 and in the fourth grade and right off Okwood road was a housing addition that was being built and remembered standing at the window and watching all the stuff float by. The Jewells(Band teacher and 9th Grade English teacher at Waller) lived accross the street and I watched their daughter run out into the street and try and collect stuff that was floating down the street. I wounder what she ever did with the stuff.
Thanks for the story Jayne!!
I know the Jewel’s! I’ll have to ask Tracy if she remembers this!
I was 5 when the flood happened and lived on E. Beech St. I remember during the day going to our neighbors cellar because of a tornado warning and when we came out to go home there were a pile of gas cans sitting in our yard. I don’t know why they were there or where they came from but I can still see them clear as day. Then later that night we were taken to our other neighbors house while my dad went out in tractors from Maupin’s Ford to rescue people. My dad said he rescued people out of trees including a baby. My mom’s parents were at the country club for dinner and their car stalled and had to walk home from Oakwood and Chestnut to their home on Canterbury in the Village. My other grandparents were in the process of moving from a trailer on 30th Street to a house on Cherokee (I think). My grandma had gone back to the trailer to get another load and as she left the trailer broke apart and floated away. They found her refrigerator several miles from the house.
Thanks for the great story Angie!
I was 14 years old and a student at Carrier Junior High when the 1973 Enid flood occurred. Getting on the bus that afternoon, I told the bus driver, Mr. Parkinson, that it looked like it could flood because of how dark the clouds were. Little did I know that I had made a prophecy. That night, I went a block away to babysit two boys whose parents were on a bowling league. They made it home from the Shamrock Bowling Alley early because of the flooding. My Dad had to throw a rope to me on the other side of Columbia street and pull me over because the water was almost up to my neck. After he helped me get home, he left with a couple of other firefighters who were off duty to see what the could do. We had already heard that the Brookside Addition was having severe flooding. Dad and the others finally made it to the overpass on 30th Street. He said he could hear screams and cries from the rooftops of the houses in the addition, but there were also a couple of houses on fire. They manned boats but the currents were too strong, so they had to wait it out until the water started to recede. Dad said he never felt so helpless. Later, we would help a couple of Enid firemen rebuild their homes in Brookside. I remember the smell of those homes after the flood (smelled like mold and wet mud). My job was to try to get as much of the muck off the floors as possible. Well, Brookside was rebuild, but most of the deaths from the flood were from that addition; some from my Church. I remember that some of the homes looked like they had exploded from the inside out (the outer walls were rounded. I also remember sheetrock literally sliding off the walls from the weight of the water. When you look at Boggy Creek today, it’s hard to believe the water was ever that high.
Thanks for the great story Tammy!
My family lived on the edge of Skeleton Creek in North Enid at the time. I was nine years old. Our house was on top of a good sized hill overlooking the creek and I recall watching the water slowly fill the field below us. We heard a radio report that a dam had given way upstream from our house and dad trundled us up in the car to head for higher ground. When we returned home the following day, the water was within a few feet of the house but never made it in.
Man, that was a lot of damn rain that night.
I was a junior at Enid High when the flood hit. We lived at 1424 W Broadway and remember being amazed it could rain so hard for so long. After watching it pour from our front porch for two hours, we kept thinking it had to stop at any time. Two hours later when it final changed from a total down pour to a normal shower, we venture outside.
The intersection at Broadway and Garfield was flooded and kids where swimming in the water where the street gutter was blocked. It still amazes me how dangerous that really was.
I met up with a friend, Mike O’Neil, and we ran across an old man sitting in his car at the intersection of Johnson and Broadway. The water was up the top of the doors and he was sitting on the top of his bench seat with his feet up on the dash. We asked if we could help out and take him up to the hill to the Quick Shop at Randolf and Johnson, across from West Side Rec.
There were already a dozen stranded motorist gathered at the store and we wanted to get him out of his car before the water rose any further. After convincing him to abandon his car, he took what seemed like an hour, but was probably 10 minutes, putting on a pair of rubber boots, only to step out into four feet of water. Seemed really funny at the time.
We also walked to boggy creek at Owen K and Garfield and the water was over the banks and just under the floors of the new dentist offices that were built on stilts.
I also remember the frantic calls to the radio station talking about folks being trapped on the roof of the Wee Too (sp?) restaurant and of course all the reports of people trying to rescue folks on the east side where boggy creek did the most damage. They were saying not to bring any boats with less than a 150hp motor due to the strength of the current.
Anyway, a few random memories from a day I’ll never forget.
Good luck to all those in Moore and the OKC flood areas.
Wow! Glad I wasn’t in Enid back in ’73. I was stationed at Pope AFB, North Carolina and my first daughter was one month old. Now look, after 44 years with the Air Force, I’m settling down in Enid, gotta buy a boat with at least 150hp to be prepared for the next weired storm…
Glad you made it back to Enid!!
I remember daddy opening the garage door and as he did the water went up with the garage door. My dad had built a black iron fence around the porch that day ,and when I was coming home on the bus he was just finishing it. It was dark and we could see the water rising from our station wagon. We had my baby brother Ronnie and dad used that iron fence to push my oldest sister up then grab the baby on the roof ,then Debbie ,Liz ,and me. While up there Debbie started to grab my mom up but she couldn’t do it. Cheri had a hold of the baby and daddy tried to get mom up to but the water was to rough. See we were the first house on Dwelle DR.A brand new house and we were the houses that got hit first in that area. Then by the grace of God Mr. Lambert came in his boat and after going around in his boat around the house he saved us. we went to apts. up above the flood and stayed with two bachelors all night while dad went out to help others. He is gone now but that is just who he was. He saved lives even as a volunteer fireman. And without even knowing it he saved our lives on that day with that black beautiful fence he built that day. love you daddy.
Thanks for the story!!
Wow! I was a good friend of Cheri’s !! I think of her often and would love to hear from her. Could you get in touch with me? I still live in Enid. If you could respond to this I will let you know how to contact me Rhonda Long Gallagher
I watched the water come up my yard at 121 N Burdel Lane. The building materials from the housing addition west of us came down Randolf and starting coming down Burdel Lane. Timber broke the patio door at the house on west side of Burdel Lane and flooded the house. I watched the water come up half way in my yard on East side of Burdel Lane. THe big ditch was over it banks and could not get east on Randolf. The fire department called for boat and a friend who worked at the bank with me lived east f the ditch. He took his boat to help with the recovery. I had only lived in Enid two years and was ready to go back to OKC
Thanks for the story Joe!!
My mom and dad Alph and Maxine Shorter (and family) lived in Enid during the flood. My mom heard the call for boats on te radio and wanted my dad to go out, but he thought they would want “small boats”. Then they heard them call for boats with more than 100 hp engines, so he took his 18′ inboard/outboard 130 hp boat out to close to St. Marys’. He picked up Dr. Simon and his daughter trying to wade from his clinic to St. Marys’ and later picked up 4-5 other people. The current grabbed the boat and the engine could not hold; it threw them against a tree and everyone fell out. May have been the boat incident described in an earlier post. I have you beat though having been in the middle of TS Claudette in Friendswood Tx when we got 43″ of rain in 20 hours, in July of 1979. It is still a US (maybe world) record.
the sad thing is Enid has not improved much since that flood
I was 14 yrs old and living on Brooks Dr in Brookside (our back yard faced Boggy Creek) and our house was 2nd on the end by Hillcrest. I was babysitting 2 small children (The Hakens) at their house who also lived on Brooks. My Dad (Marvin Long) worked for Koch as a truck driver and he had been out with the tractor truck saving people out by Wee Too Resturant when his boss (Leon Judd who lived on Hillcrest next to Boggy Creek) radioed him and said get to Brookside. He stopped and got me & the 2 children and by then the water was about ankle deep. We got to our house and Dad discovered Mom and my 3 siblings and 2 small dogs had already went next door and were in the attic. By time Dad had gotten over there it was too late to get anyone down as the water was past his knees, he barely had time to get back to he truck, by then the water was waist deep. He pulled out of our yard and was attempting to get to higher ground but the truck got stuck at the corner of Brooks and Hillcrest. There we sit all night. My Dad OUR Hero was so smart, he managed to get the fuel tank lid off and thank God the tank wasn”t full so that gave us some extra weigh as the water filled it. As the water came into the cab of the truck, Dad lifted us to the very top of the truck, there we sit all night with a small blanket for cover against the pelting rain. We watched as a burning log came down the street from a house that had caught fire, and lodged itself on the porch next to a car where the rest of my family was, but finally extinguished before sitting the car on fire. We also watched in horror as the same house began falling down on the east side. We all survived by the Grace of GOD. Our across the street neighbors had seeked refuge in their small to medium sized boat that had been tied to a tree sapling. We again watched in horror as they eventually sailed down Boggy Creek. They also survived. I seen a poor little dog floating down on something and was howling… When the water started receding Dad put us back in the sleeper of the truck and eventually a boat came and rescued us. I will never forget how high the water was on Brooks, it was as high as the eaves of the houses, but behind the houses which used to be a park, seemed so much higher, and the water so swift and so loud, just like what you see and hear when you go to those dangerous rivers at Colorado . Unforgetable…….
I was in that attic with your seblings and dogs that night. God had his hands on us that night !! Art Guilbault
I’m worried that was my little dog you saw. I had forgotten we still had our dog by the night of the flood until my dad told me last year that we lost her that night. It’s so weird that I survived the horrors of the flood (we were in ValleyView at the bottom of Freeland), and now all I can think about it that poor little dog, abandoned to the night.
what a night i believe you were talking about my family the carson’s in the boat tied to the tree sapling, we live on the corner of brooks. my father mother and brother were in the boat. it hit the first wave and made it but the second flipped the boat. some one latter told me the boat went ten foot in the air. my mother and father ended up together, for awhile but she said she lost her life jacket, my dad thought
he had lost her. by the grace of god she ended up by my brother and me, we were rescued that nite by a jet boat. what a night.
Aunt Rhonda I’ve never heard your part of this story just my moms, thanks for sharing!! Love you!
I was 13 year old I remember my dad being out in his truck he work for koch also I remember him telling us about your dad
Rhonda, I don’t know if you’ll remember me or not, but we were good friends at PPV and I lived on McClaflin Dr. We moved from Enid to OKC just before the flood. I went to bed that night crying and praying for my friends as I heard about the floods. -Pam (Bryant) Wilburn
I was employed by the City of Enid as a heavy equipment operator. Got called back in to work at about 6pm that night. All who worked that night parked behind the old city garage. After working all night, we were told to go home and get some sleep. Only to find that everyone’s car had been washed away by the flood. What a night.
I remember that night, a group of us City Employee had gathered at a house on north Washington my car (a VW Beatle) was parked up high in the Driveway, when we saw a mustang go floating by we decided we better go to the city offices and report to help we tried going down Grand , when we got to the underpass it was running to full to get pass so we cut west to go around only to find the bridge in the Meadowbrook area water was too deep and swift. We final made it in and then it seem we worked non-stop for a week. I hook up cars to be pull away from the bridge below St. Mary’s, hauled more pianos out of ‘Brookside than I knew even existed.
I was nine years old and remember “the flood ” vividly. We spent most of the evening in the storm cellar as there were several tornado warnings accompanying the storm. My cousins were living in Enid at the time and came to our house as we lived on higher ground. I remember Jim Williams, Channel 4 weatherman coming on the TV and saying “a disaster has struck Enid tonight “. My cousin replied “well, my mother just passed out if she saw that!”
Later that evening, my dad tried to drive my cousin’s husband back to their house. They came up on the underpass on Grand and it was full of water. Jerry just gunned the car and pushed through the water, and they fortunately had enough speed to push the water aside, so they got through. I’d NEVER ADVISE anyone to do that…..they were lucky they weren’t swept away.
I remember the hail storm too. Softball sized hail propelled by 70 mph winds, as the hailstones moved mostly horizontally. Most every north facing window in town was blown out. My mom was driving in it and sped up the car to knock the hailstones off the windshield (another trick I would NOT advise) as she drove. My dad had me covered with a blanket in the hall of my grandparents’ house.
When you grow up in Oklahoma, you’re sure to have plenty of weather stories to tell!
Mark Holdeman, Ft Worth, TX
I lived on Hillcrest Dr. My father Leon Judd worked for Koch Oil. When he heard they needed high water vehicles to help at St Mary’s, he and Marvin Long took off. We watched the water getting deeper and going over the curbs of Brooks Dr. My brother Mike Judd ran out and was able to rescue several people from their cars as they floated down the street . The wall of water came fast! We ran and got in the boat . We couldn’t get it off the trailer fast enough and it started to flip. Mike pushed my mom Loretta Judd, me, David Fulgum on the roof. It was cold and we had one jacket and Mike laid across us spread eagle for warmth. The rain would fill your ears, the Lightning, the flames from the house that burnt on Brooks Dr. It was like a nightmare that you couldn’t wake up from. We watched people’s possessions float by. The trees behind our house were full of things. Mrs Kiriokos float by and we told here when to grab the tree. There were also those that floated by that had lost their lives.. My dad heard Brookside was under water and the roads closed. He went thru a pasture to get to the highest point of Brookside. He could only see roofs. Out of desperation he pulled the air horn. We heard it and knew it was either dad or Marvin. We started yelling to the house next door. By the time it reach dad, all he knew was someone was still alive. We were finally rescued. A human chain with the water still chest high! That’s when I saw the other truck in front of our house where Marvin and his daughter, my best friend Rhonda Long Gallagher had spent the night. Somehow lodged.. Our truck was in our neighbors house, our car on the bottom of many others. ( like building blocks) My brothers truck was later found 2 miles away under a trailer house. My brother recieved an award after for saving 3 people’s lives. but always said ” I just did what anyone else would have “. I will never forget that night. We lost everything we owned like many others but we were blessed because we didn’t loose our lives.
I had just started working at Southwestern Bell. We were sent from Woodward to Enid on Saturday following the flood. Our first job was going to Saint Mary’s Hospital to pull cable from the basement to the 1st floor as the basement was full of water and debris. Two of the victims of the flood were the wife and young daughter of an employee of Southwestern Bell. He was a Cable repairman. I believe his name was Jim Swartwood.
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I was 2 years old. I don’t remember the flood but my parents told me a story about it. We had gone somewhere (I don’t know where) and we could not go any further. My dad was 6’2 and he put me on his shoulders and they waded through the water and to our house. This is all I know of the story. Both of my parents passed several years ago so I can’t ask them. Thanks for the memories.
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I graduated from EHS in ’69 and was living in the “new” “subsidized” apartments on 30th street when the storm hit. My prized ’66 GTO was caught in rapidly rising water on 30th St. and washed into the gully. (Submerged and totaled with an insurance payment of $600.). Some other Phillips boys and I borrowed a new tractor from a local dealer and pulled cars out of that gully for several days.
I turned 1 year old on the 12th. My Aunt and Cousin drowned – Sharon and Twyla Swartwood. I believe my Aunt was the last to be found. It dawned on me, many years later, what a sad first Birthday that must have been – for my mom and my Nana especially.
Memories of the flood still haunt me to this day. I was 9 years old and my grandfather was in St. Mary’s hospital at that time. My mother and I went down the street to be with my grandmother on East Hemlock Street. We were worried when we heard that the hospital was flooding, but those worries quickly faded when we heard screaming and crying from the flooding creek area right behind her garage out back. My dad went out with a neighbor in a boat to find where the screaming was coming from. About an hour later, they returned with a yound couple and an infant. They were shivering and the baby looked bluish. They wrapped the baby in a blanket and my grandmother got her a baby bottle with warm milk. As the baby began to drink, there was a sigh of relief from the adults, and the couple told us they had been stuck in the top of a tree for over an hour trying to hold on to the tree and their baby as the current had swept up and their VW bug and turned it onto its side as it was carried away with the current. They barely escaped being swept away with it. The top of the tree was the only thing in sight that they could grab onto for safety, and they were terrified that their cries for help would not be heard. I will never forget that night and never forget the look on their faces.
The next day, I found out that my friend had lost her father that night, and her life was forever changed. It was my first realization that parents could be taken from our lives in the blink of an eye. I still remember how empty I felt because I didn’t have the words to say that would make it better and could do nothing to help her or her family. It will never be forgotten.
Hi Julie, My name is Shawn Barnes. I appreciate your story as I believe that I was that bluish baby and my parents were the young couple. This story is very familiar to me. The details may be varied over the years and from different perspectives but the elements are there. The vw, the tree, E. Hemlock, a lady helping to warm me up, even with a spoonful of bourbon so I was told…My dad told me how terrified they were and that there were 3 or 4 failed boat attempts to rescue them from that tree after they had been there several hours into the early morning hours. The current kept flipping the boats or was too strong for the motors. But finally they were rescued. Are your folks still in Enid? While I have no memory of this as I was only about 18months old at the time I would be amiss if I didn’t say thank you. Are your parents still in Enid?
My name is Loren Sieve,I’ve lived in the Midwest most of my life,but had the priveledge of living in Enid from 1971-1977.I lived up on nth.13th,I believe.The flooding in that area was very low compared to the most southen part of the city.Well,myself and 2 of my friends,I was 15.,and after having floods in Nebraska,did’nt seem to worry us much.We had heard that the flooding was bad,by te hospital,this was after it had rained a few hours.If I remember right,there was some kind of park starting from a street with business’s that dropped to the hospital that went to the Boggy creek.We heard metal grinding on metal ,as the cars floated away.We had heard that south of Market St. was really bad .We helped one family get out of their car on that street about 3 blocks Nth. of the St. Marys,by making a chain with ourselves,the current on the other side seemed a lot better.Well us being dumb kids,we worked our way East,and tried to get to the colleges,the main floe over seemed to be going threw the college ,down to the pond down there.When we were going to go home we walked by the park,and up that steep part of Randolph.St. the water was over our waist.When we got up by Longfellow,and we all went home,we had a chance to help others,and we felt good about.For some reason I remember walking home ,after school thinking what a nice day it was,I still love Enid and wish I hadn’t left.
I graduated Enid High in 73 and joined the Army National Guard that summer. The Guard was called out the night it started raining and I was one of many put on detail of guarding Brookside. I ended up working nearly all night and then in the day time I was on a search and rescue team. This went on for a couple of days and when the water finally resided we were able to search the creeks and that is when my team found victim #9. I still remember his name but don’t want to say it here. I’m sure there were 11 people who lost their lives that night, the last two were found about a week or two later.
Edit to my previous post
I guess there were 9 lives lost. I posted earlier that there were 11. So our team found # 7 instead of #9. Sorry
Does anybody remember a Hotel named the President Hotel? in Enid, my grandmother was the manager there in 1974, please email me to let me know, Thank you, John Henry
I was in high school at the time. I remember my sister could not get home from work, and a friend of mine who lived in brookside had to be recued off of her roof. Our church helped with the clean up , and it was really sad at everything the people had lost.
I also remember the next day Elivis Presley was to be in Oklahoma City . We decided that we had to try and get to the City so we could see Him. We had to leave very earlier and detour a lot of places, but we did eventually make it.
It was a very scary night when the rain kept coming. I hope and prayer we never have to experience that again
What did the City of Enid do to prevent another flood like the one in 73….? I heard they built a Flood Control Canal or something….
Yes. There are now large flood control drainage ditches.
To the above comment from John R. Henry. The Pesident Motel had the best diving board Enid has ever seen.
My dad took my brother and I down to 2nd and Pine. Cummings Constuction had an office with a HUGE IBM computer on Pine. It was totally under water. ( next day IBM cards looked like wall paper). We watched Mistletoe trailers floating by and hanging up at the railroad trestle on Elm. Appliances were coming out of Gibson’s Store and floating away. We lived near Oakwood and Randolph and the water got up to the top of the curbs. My brother and I drove all over Enid the next day. The site of Enid was devastating. Funny, but remember “Schools out for Ever” by Alice Cooper playing on the radio while driving around. The memory of that night and the weeks following will be there forever.
Do you remember what the address was where the President Hotel was located, plrase let me know asap, my grandmother ran the hotel in 1974, or call me, 918-613-0365, Thank you.
I was 10 when that flood hit. Our family had just moved to Enid and all of our belongings were being stored at a Bekins moving company storage facility. It flooded and destroyed everything. My sister was born on October 9th at St. Mary’s hospital and my Mom, Dad and sister were at the hospital when the flooding hit. Our car was washed away but everyone was ok. It was definitely a disaster for all of us but we recovered. I remember that night like it was yesterday.
Pat Rezler
I was 9 years old at the time of the Enid flood I lived on East Hemlock right across from the Olsons who lived right behind Olson Hospital the Animal Hospital. I remember my mother had left to go pick up my stepfather, who was at the bus station, and I remember boats going down east hemlock to rescue people. The Olson family came across the street and got my sister Bonnie and my brother Tommy and mmyself,we spent the night with the Olsens at their house. There were several other people there as well. I remember us saying prayers and reading our Bibles and praying for everyone. I later found out that my mom had to climb out of truck because it was filling up with water, she had to climb over a fence and ended up staying the night with complete stranger. my stepfather spend the night in a tree at the bus station. I thank God for saving my Mother that night.
I was 18 y/o. I was home alone. when it started raining I thought it felt different. It came up the curb fast. My sister was out somewhere, I didn’t know where. I drove to one of her friend’s and they were in the front yard on their bikes and my sister was crying because the water was coming up fast. We went home and just watched the water keep rising. We had a high foundation, thankfully. I measured with a yardstick and it was almost to the top of it. Then their was a tornado warning and we went to the basement. we had a sump pump that was keeping up with the rain. Then, the power went out and the basement filled with water and came to the top of the steps of the kitchen. We lived near Champlin and there was an oily mess on top of the water. Who knows what was in that water. We couldn’t reach either of our parents, the phones were out. I tried to drive to one of their houses, but there was no way. It was crazy. I am 62 yrs old now and remember it well. I did most of the taking stuff out of the basement. Everywhere I had been in contact with the flood water was a rash. Never knew what caused it. Must not have been lethal!!
I remember the flood of ’73, we lived in North Enid, south of Breckinridge road. It flooded to the north of us. But I remember something about a small recreational lake called Sportsman lake, their dam broke and contributed to the flooding? My father in law was a custodian at this lake. I had a baby 3 weeks at St. Mary’s after the flood and St. Mary’s was partially up and running.
Was their a sportsman lake znd the dam broke cauze of all the rain. I cant find any information on it.
Was their a sportsman lake and the dam broke cause of all the rain. I cant find any information on it.
I was 14 yrs. old, attending Longfellow Junior High School. We were at football practice after school a few miles south at the “dog pound” we called it. We were suddenly called in when the rain suddenly came in and only kept increasing. Our parents had to pick us up. I had to leave my bike which I rode every day before the cold weather set in for the winter. I remember it raining all that evening until around 9 or 10p.m. My brother was stuck at some friends house when while sitting at the table the water broke through the windows from Boggie Creek. His beeeeautiful green Grand Torino got flooded and totalled (loved that car as you should tell). The next day me and my friends spent hours walking around Srings Park, St. Mary’s, Pak-A-Sak all the low-lined areas along the Boggie Creek areas (our regular daily playground), seeing cars and all kinds of debris all over the place, even bloated bodies. What an unforgettable tragic experience. I will never forget. When I think about it (every storm I hear on tv weather reports), it seems like it just happened. I’m now 59 yrs. old. Class of ’78. I’m a bonified KFOR channel 4 and I still remember the special news segment, “The Top 3 for ’73” “if I recall correctly, if it wasn’t on channel 5-hey! I was 14, now 59. It aired Dec.31, 1973. The other big national story I remember on channel 4 was on the Today Show- The Jim Jones Tragedy in Ghyana in the same house I was living in when “The Enid Flood” hit. “John Caine”
I was 3 years old. I remember looking out our front windows and watching cars move down the street all by themselves. I remember water in the street to the curbs, and then it seemed like moments later water halfway up the window I was looking through. My parents put me on the washing machine while they grabbed blankets and things, and I remember them wading in waist deep water inside the house. We climbed a ladder to get to the roof, my mom who was 7 months pregnant went first, then me, then my dad hoisted our big English Sheep dog up. My dad was last and as he took his foot off of the ladder it swept away in the current. Mom kept an Army blanket wrapped around herself with me inside. I remember the whole night as darkness, mom singing, dogs howling and barking in panic, and people screaming in agony. I couldn’t see much because of the blanket mom kept around me, but those sounds have haunted me into adulthood. I later learned from my parents that one of our neighbors had a dog kennel in their backyard with hunting dogs in it. There was a roof on the kennel so as the water rose, the dogs drowned. The woman next door was frantic as her husband drowned inside the house, not making it out with her to the roof. My mom was singing all night in an attempt to distract me from the sounds of horror. The next morning, we went to an attic in a church. A woman there gave me a hand made quilt with little blue elephants on it. I had that quilt for decades.
I remember being 3 yrs old living in the trailer park on N Van Buren across from the old Atwoods. My Momma and I were waiting in the storm shelter with a bunch of others, for my Daddy to show up in his big Western oil truck to rescue us. He did, too. I don’t remember where he took us but I do remember having turn away from Independence or Grand, wherever the underpass is, because it was not passable. I remember feeling safe because my Dad showed up.
I was 13 at the time and was at First Baptist Church on Maine for the usual Wednesday night activities. It started storming, and everybody went to the basement because of a tornado warning. A buddy and I were running around unsupervised (as we always did) and looked at Champlain Pool across the alley, giggling that if it kept raining the pool would fill up. Soon the sewers started backing up in the basement so we all went back upstairs to the sanctuary. My Granddad (a deacon) was trying to keep an eye on me but I gave him the slip. My buddy and I looked out the back door and not only was Champlain Pool full, it was solid water from the alley behind the church to the YMCA on the south side of Cherokee. By now it had mostly stopped raining, so we snuck out to see what was going on. There was a big sign on the Knox building flashing a message asking for people to take boats to the southeast part of town. My buddy and I went towards Cherokee and the water was rushing I MEAN RUSHING from west to east. We spotted a car a little ways out and thought we should check that no one is in it. So we waded out into the water, it got up to our knees and was moving fast. I cannot think how close we came to becoming another statistic for the night as we carefully plodded our way back out of the water. Finally things let up and I got a ride home. I lived near Hayes school on the big ditch. The next day I went over to check it out and there was grass and debris in the fencing of the foot bridge, so it had been that deep in the ditch the night before. I’ll never forget that night.
Lance Jones
10/19/22
Hot Springs, Arkansas
49 years ago today, I was 26 years old, working for Social Security in Enid. My wife and I lived on Chisholm Trail in far north central Enid. The night of 10/10/73, I planned to go to choir practice at 1st Presbyterian and my wife was studying for a test she had the next day at nursing school. The heavy rains started in late afternoon and Chisholm Trail soon became a replica of of the raging Colorado River. Our VW Bug floated away. I knew I would not go to choir practice that night.
As the water began to rise toward our front door, we put towels round the door. Well, that did no good, because it soon came in from seemingly everywhere. Finally it rose to about 4 feet in the house. An odd thing about elevation on Chisholm Trail. It all looked to be on the small level, but houses as close as two houses from our stayed dry. We stayed with one of those dry neighbors that night. It was certainly depressing to see your household goods and valuables floating around. The stink and the muck permeated everything for months.
A good friend of mine from work, recently widowed Laura Spurr, allowed us to stay at her house in an untouched part of town while we cleaned up and made the house habitable again. Other friends from work also help[ed. The Small Business Administration handled Federal disaster relief back then and I think they did an excellent job in Enid. I asked for a loan of $2400 and received it within a month of submitting the request. The payback rate was $15 a month and I repaid it in about 15 years. Back then and even today, I hear people complain about the slowness of disaster relief. They seemed to want everything put back the way it was in just a few days. It just doesn’t work like that. It took us about a year to repair and redo the house after our relatively minor disaster. I revisited the house about 6 years ago and it looks better now than when we lived there. For about 10 years after the flood, I got very uneasy whenever there was a heavy, prolonged rain but eventually outgrew that fear.
I enjoyed the 2 years I lived in Enid. I liked everything about it – – except the Great Flood.
I was in my early 30’s when this happened. My brother, Jim Swartwood, lost his wife, Sharon, and two year old baby, Twyla in the Brookside flood. It was the most horrendous time in our lives, identifying bodies and waiting two weeks for search teams to find Sharon’s body under the mud. Funerals two weeks apart, then the long process of shoveling deep mud out of the house and all their belongings out to the curb. Jim had nothing but the clothes on his back and his pickup he was driving. He worked for Southwestern Bell at the time and was out working on communication. Bless his heart – he had such a hard time. Everyone was so kind to him and our family.