Elba, The Town That Keeps Flooding

Elba, the county seat of Coffee County, began as a ferry crossing on the Pea River in the eighteen thirties and became the county seat in eighteen fifty-two and was incorporated in eighteen fifty-three. It has one defining characteristic that overrides all others: it floods, catastrophically, with a frequency that would have convinced most towns to relocate. In March nineteen ninety, the Pea River crested at nearly forty-eight feet, far above flood stage, breached the levees, and submerged virtually the entire town.

In nineteen ninety-four, Tropical Storm Alberto sent water through the ring levees. In nineteen ninety-eight, three consecutive days of rain sent six feet of water through downtown and forced two thousand of the four thousand residents to evacuate. Elba keeps rebuilding.

Federal money built a new stormwater drainage system after the nineteen ninety-four flood. The levees have been improved. The town remains.

Its persistence in the face of a river that does not want it there is either stubbornness or character, depending on your point of view.