1930-1954

Flood of 1945 takes three lives

Floodwaters reach the roofs of homes near Breece's Landing in 1945.

In mid-September 1945, swirling brown and red water from the rain-swollen Cape Fear River overflowed into Fayetteville. The water covered more than a quarter of the city and drove 1,500 families from their homes for a week or more.

Three people, including two boys ages 12 and 16 who had been playing in the water, drowned. A 55-year-old man drowned in the river swamps of Eastover Township while trying to save his livestock.

"It was a scary time," said Alice Murphy Overman. "Water came up to our window sills."

Overman is 80. At the time of the flood, she lived with her family near the Cape Fear River, near what is now N.C. 24.

Floating tanks from Fort Bragg, called weasels, rescued dozens of families in Fayetteville and in rural areas near the river.

On Sept. 21, four days after the waters first rose above the flood stage of 35 feet, the river gauge registered 68.9 feet. That broke the record set in 1908, when the gauge registered 68.7 feet after heavy rains caused the river to flood.

The gauge had hit 54.7 feet in 1928 and 65.3 feet in 1929, according to Eric Farr of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Wilmington.

In 1945, Person Street, like East Russell Street, became a navigable waterway up to Liberty Point. Cross Creek flooded at the Green Street bridge.

The American Red Cross directed assistance from schools and a tent city set up on both sides of Burgess Street.

A newspaper story on Sept. 22, 1945, said 2,200 people had been sheltered the two previous days and 2,600 had received meals.

By Sept. 24, all but 100 people had returned home to begin the cleanup. Some houses had washed away.

The 1945 flood prompted officials to look for a solution to the river's problems. The flood was caused by heavy rains during a tropical storm that struck eastern North Carolina on Sept. 17. The storm resulted after a hurricane hit south Florida on Sept. 14 and headed north before weakening.

Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a study in 1946 and authorized the construction of Jordan Dam between Sanford and Apex in 1963.

After legal challenges and delays, Jordan Lake had finally filled by 1982.