1973 Enid Flood
This is an aerial photo from the Klamath Falls, Oregan Herald & News Newspaper dated Oct. 12, 1973. The picture shows St. Mary’s Hospital near Boggy Creek. Many cars were swept down the creek. Contributed by Rita (Conrady) Buck
1973 Enid, OK Flood Photo
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
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.
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.
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).
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.
Accounts of the flood:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I hadn’t thought about the flood in years. Thanks for memories (I think).
Jodi Shumway
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:)
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.
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.
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 firedepartment 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
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
Thanks for the memories!
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
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!
Thanks so much for the story!
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.
Thanks for the story!
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.