‘It’s bigger than man:’ Looking back at Mobile’s flood of 1981
Updated May 06, 2021;
Mobilians going about their business on May 5, 1981, were no strangers to heavy rains. But they had little idea what was coming.
Hurricane Frederic, in September 1979, had resulted in a federal disaster declaration. Another had come in spring 1980, which saw two rounds of flooding. During one of those, in April, a dam failed at Municipal Park “emptying the lake into Three Mile Creek and ultimately into the homes of Mobile residents below,” according to a Mobile Register report.
Three Mile Creek experienced massive flooding again in April 1981, with hundreds of homes in the watershed taking damage. And yet, incredibly, the worst was still to come.