Washed Over: The Flood of 1921 and San Antonio's Westside

El agua sube...sube...sube...tornó a decir como a las doce de la noche, cuando sus ojos fueron abiertos, y desde la ventana de su recámara, al fulgor de un relámpago pudo ver las aguas, que ya llegaban al pie de su balcón.

The water rises ... rises ... rises ... she repeated around twelve o'clock at night, after her eyes opened, and from the window of her bedroom, she could see the rising waters by the glare of a lightning bolt, that they were already reaching the foot of her balcony. [1]

On September 9, 1921, a series of heavy rainstorms moved across a woefully unprepared central and south Texas. While this storm started like many others and few worried about its initial intensity, things quickly became very serious. The torrential rain brought on a catastrophic surge of water, leading to the greatest flood in Bexar County’s recorded history. San Antonio’s downtown area was buried under ten feet of water that damaged buildings, resources, and cut off electricity and communication lines. [3] Overall, the flood of 1921 created nearly $5 million in damages, destroying the city’s business industry and residential living. [4]

On the morning of September 10, San Antonians retreated from their places of refuge to look at the situation surrounding them. Surrounded by “blocks and blocks of upturned pavement, mountains of debris, dead dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens; with almost a foot of ooze and slime carried by the waters which inundated an area six or seven miles long, and nearly two miles wide; with stagnant pools in all low spots and without a city water supply, electric, power, or lights,” residents who survived the deadly flood determined what to do next. [2]

San Antonio has a long history of environmental devastation and a contentious history with water. The effects of environmental disasters have fallen along racial boundaries in San Antonio. Throughout the early 20th century, an Anglo-dominant city council neglected Mexican communities on the Westside of San Antonio in disaster relief and urban development. The 1921 flood marks the beginnings of more dedicated efforts towards the maintenance of a modern water system in San Antonio. However, these efforts also revealed stark inequities in the distribution of public aid and political concern between the city's wealthy Anglo districts and the largely hispanic, poor communities of the Westside. [5] Since 2021 marks the centennial anniversary of this flood, we’re using this opportunity to share the history of water in San Antonio and to examine how social, political, and economic factors created systemic infrastructural and health issues on the Westside, which amplified each environmental disaster and inundated Mexican communities for decades.

San Antonio has had a long history of flooding. As new development covered increasing amounts of the watershed, preventing water absorption, the flooding only intensified. San Antonio faced a major flood in 1819 after “a culebra de agua (cloudburst) fell in the drainage area of Olmos Creek.” [6] Significant floods also hit the city in 1845, 1852, 1865, 1903, 1913 (October and December), and 1914. Each time the city flooded, talks began anew of developing an infrastructure to prevent and manage flooding, but each time, little action was taken. [6][7] Only in 1917 did the city begin to take more serious action, fearing another major flood would be coming nearly 100 years after the first. In 1920, the firm Metcalf and Eddy prepared an extensive report for the city that investigated the city’s flood preparedness, as well as recommendations for improvements to the local infrastructure. This report included an extensive study of the creeks in the Westside, including Alazán, Apache, and Martinez creeks. [7]

The city was still determining what actions to take next. Citizens, for example, objected to proposals to remove trees along the river, because they provided valuable shade and beautified the river area. On March 31, 1921, less than 6 months before the flood that would devastate the city, a local protest took place over the proposed tree removal. [7] This focus on beautification intensified in the early 1900s with the rise of the City Beautiful movement - residents similarly objected to the overtrimming of the riverbed in 1904 after a 1903 flood. [6] While the city dragged its feet to prevent flooding, so too did some residents object to reasonable efforts to prevent future flooding.

However, these efforts came too late. Few substantive changes had been made by the time that the great flood of 1921 hit. On September 9, 1921, heavy rainfall began to pour over San Antonio. By 9 PM, the severity of the storm had rapidly intensified and the main creeks in San Antonio quickly overfilled. The volume of water was more than the Alazán, San Pedro, and Olmos Creeks could handle, and each of these tributaries burst around midnight. Olmos Creek overtook the downtown business area in a wave that reached about 30,000 cubic feet per second, pushing this flood water all the way down to Houston Street.

As the flood waters settled, they buried downtown under 2-12 feet of water (Note: reports vary). [8] The following morning, the San Antonio Light reported that the water reached the mezzanine level of the Gunter Hotel, and many other downtown buildings found their lower floors flooded. [5][4] The flood destroyed businesses, telephone lines, and wiped out the city’s electrical grid, in addition to rupturing fuel storage tanks, spilling oil, and taking out bridges and railroad tracks needed to traverse the town. [5]

Es la raza, siempre la raza, que en ajeno o en extraño suelo, ha de sentir sobre sus carnes laceradas, el flagelo de todos los martirios, el quebranto de todas las supremas agonías.[1]

The flood's impact on the Westside was catastrophic, pulling people, animals, and homes into the floodwaters as they rushed through this neighborhood. A Spanish-language account of the flood's impact, La Tragedia de la Inundación de San Antonio, collected local accounts of the flood and its devastation on the Mexican-American Westside. The section below describes one of these stories:

While the 1921 flood was a devastating event throughout San Antonio, the physical destruction and economic and emotional tolls were more severe for the Westside of San Antonio. This phenomenon was nothing new; the Westside had always significantly suffered more with each environmental disaster due to a lack of resources and attention from the city government. These neighborhoods were historically poor, often without safe and sanitary residential structures. [10] Many homes on the Westside were known as corrales, closely grouped, small homes without electricity or water. Often, a group of families shared a communal water source nearby. [10]

Throughout the early 20th century, Anglo city leaders have utilized the stream from the San Pedro Creek as an effective racial barrier, segregating the Westside from the wealthier districts of San Antonio. [9] Spouting from the northwest side of the city, the San Pedro stream flows along the western border of northern and downtown districts. While maintaining the pristine image of San Antonio’s ‘thriving’ areas, this stream has figuratively and literally buried the Westside communities.

Within the Westside of the city lies three more streams — the Alazán, Apache, and Martinez creeks. These three creeks had been poorly maintained and systemically neglected by city leaders for decades and were unable to hold the intense rainfall throughout the late hours of September 9, 1921. Like the Olmos tributary, the downburst from the San Antonio River overwhelmed the San Pedro, Martinez, and Alazán Creeks. [3] The Martinez and Alazán Creeks ran along the opposite edge of the Westside district. When these tributaries burst they released a wall of water which entrapped the Westside. These walls of water rampaged the neighborhood, washing out homes, animals, and people with this storm surge. The Light reported that 37 bodies had been found and listed the names of the victims who were mostly of Mexican decent and residents on the Westside, though later reports account for as many as 80+ lives lost. [5][11]

While many lives were lost that night, stories abound of heroes who stepped up to save many in danger. From firefighters to bystanders, many helped rescue Westside residents. A range of emotions rest in these stories — from relief to pain to regret — as some were saved and others were not.

There were many heroes that night, and in the days that followed, and yet, sorrow prevailed for many who lost loved ones in this event. In the story below, a woman who had fainted was rescued by firefighters, but upon waking, she learned that her baby had been left behind.

After the storm ended, San Antonio residents surveyed the damage that surrounded them. After the flood, J.B. Gwin recounted the devastation throughout the city in a Progressive Movement publication. He wrote that the flood upturned pavement, killed animals, and knocked over oil tanks which released slime which contaminated the city. However, within this survey is also an ignorant and racist examination of Mexican victims on the Westside. Gwin downplayed the effects of the flood on these communities due to their "racial characteristics and historic background." Stating that Mexicans were accustomed to flooding and ruin because their home country Mexico was wholly unsanitary, he painted this population as stoic and "indifferent" to death and debris because that's just how they lived. [2] However, sources like La Tragedia counteract Gwin's racist misinformation, showing the grave impact the flood had on the Westside's Mexican American community - who faced loss of homes, the death of loved ones, and feelings that their city had failed to protect them.

Relief efforts in the Westside seemed primarily coordinated first by the Red Cross and then by La Cruz Azul Mexicana (Mexican Blue Cross). These entities collected donations for relief. They also collected and distributed food, clothes, blankets, furniture, and more among those who suffered from the storm. The camps also arranged for people to receive medical attention, collected information on storm damage, and helped find new families for those orphaned in the storm. The camps provided a mix of relief centralized at relief campsites as well as driving through the neighborhoods to identify those needing help and to distribute resources. [1]

While many in San Antonio supported the construction of Olmos Dam, many residents of the Westside and the Southside questioned whether the city was doing enough to protect them from future flooding, especially when so much money was being invested in rerouting the river downtown. Without investment in Alazán, Apache, and San Pedro creeks, Westsiders and Southsiders feared that floods would still develop as water rushed beyond downtown, perhaps even worsening because of the straightening of the river downtown. [6]

In order to build a dam to protect San Antonio, the city secured $3 million in funding through a bond issue. Dam construction commenced in 1925, and the dam opened in 1927. The dam provided protection to those living in newer neighborhoods of Olmos Park beyond the dam, which were now connected to the urban core by a road crossing the top of the dam. Just as significantly, the dam protected the city’s downtown sector. Reducing flood risk from the downtown district enabled for a lot of investment in this downtown core -- construction commenced taller and fancier than prior to the flood of 1921 as once wary investors went all in. [5][11] Furthermore, this flood protection was extended by creating floodgates downtown at the ends of the bend that today’s Riverwalk features so prominently. This bypass channel allowed for further downtown development and the creation of the Riverwalk as architect Robert Hugman had envisioned it in his 1929 plans. [12]

In contrast to the $3 million to fund the Olmos Dam, the city committed a meager $6,000 to fund this drainage work in the Westside. [5] In fall 1924, crews cleared brush and debris from the Westside’s creeks, including where the Alazán Creek met San Pedro Creek. Crews also straightened and widened creek channels in some of the riskiest places. Minor infrastructural work was also done on San Pedro Creek where it connected with the river near Mission Concepcion. [6] This minimal attention directly contrasts with efforts to shore up the King William neighborhood from flooding. [7]

This disinvestment stands in direct contrast to the development of the Riverwalk and downtown flood infrastructure from the 1920s and beyond. Increasingly, conversations shifted to river beautification and strategic development of the river area downtown to foster tourism, creating an American Venice. [6][7] The Spanish colonial decor of the Riverwalk added insult to injury, selling San Antonio’s Hispanic history while ignoring its Mexican-American and working class populations living downriver.

Meanwhile, flooding continued in the Westside with several floods hitting in the 1930s, another in June 1946, and yet another in June 1951, several of which resulted in deaths in the Westside alongside structural damage. Throughout many of these floods, the downtown core remained untouched by flood damage. [7]

Do you have stories about flooding, creeks, or water in the Westside? Do you have family stories about the 1921 flood or photographs and stories of life in the Westside in the 1920s? Please share your stories at stmupublichistory@gmail.com or reach out to us to talk more!