At the height of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, water covered 27,000 square miles of land across seven states.
One of the many refugee camps set up for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the floodwaters was in Lafayette, Louisiana.
The first baby born at the Lafayette camp was a “lusty boy” who arrived on the night of May 20.
His mother, Mrs. Lester Guidry of Evangeline Parish, asked the attending physician to name the baby.
What did the doctor write on the birth certificate? L’Eau Haute — French for “high water.”
Sources:
- “High Water Gives Name to Initial Infant in Camp.” Evening Star [Washington, D.C.] 22 May 1927: 2.
- Parrish, Susan Scott. “The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between the North and the South.” Smithsonian Magazine 11 Apr. 2007.