Geneva, AL Flood, Mar 1929

Geneva, Ala. Hardest Hit

Rescue Camp, Six Miles From ELBA, Ala.—(UP)—Col. William E. PERSONS, commander of the national guard companies engaged in rescue work here, was ordered late Saturday to move all but a small detachment of his men to Geneva, Ala.

Late reports to the military headquarters said conditions at Geneva and Brewton, nearby, were “worse than at any time in Elba.”
This contradicted previous reports which said most of the refugees at those points had been rescued.

The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, NE 16 Mar 1929

--------

Geneva, Ala., was reported to have been practically abandoned as the water there began to rise. The damage there however, is not expected to be as great as that at Elba.

The Morning Call, Laurel, MS 16 Mar 1929

--------

The town of Geneva, in Coffee county, twenty miles south of Elba, went under twenty feet of water about eleven o’clock this morning. Distress calls for food and clothing, and appeals for rescue were frantically sent out from the little town just before the floods swallowed up the last lines of communication.

The appeals told of the 3,500 people comprising the entire population of the town and the neighborhood around it being marooned on the roofs of their houses and in the tops of trees.

The flooding of this town was caused by the receding waters of Pea river at Elba. No alarm was felt at Geneva yesterday. But this morning the water came quickly and the thousands of rescue workers in the flood districts were cut off from all chances to aid the newly stricken area.

The Morning Call, Laurel, MS 17 Mar 1929
__________________