05/23/2026
April 21, 1927. Arkansas City, AR. 1:00am. The Mississippi River levee system failed in 145 places. 27,000 square miles underwater. 500+ people died. 700,000 homeless. It was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history. At 12:30am the levee at Mound Landing, MS started to go. It was 20 miles upriver from Arkansas City. If it broke, a 20-foot wall of water would hit at 2:00am.
At the Arkansas City Western Union was the night messenger boy, 14-year-old William “Billy” Ray Thornton. He was 4’8”, 75 pounds. His job: deliver telegrams on his bicycle. At 12:45am a call came in from Greenville: “Mound Landing levee crevassed. 20 feet. Going to Arkansas City. Run.” The operator wrote it down and fainted. She was 8 months pregnant.
Billy took the telegram. No phone system. No siren. He ran to his bike. The tires were flat. He ran. He went door to door on the low side of town. He banged on doors: “Levee broke! 20 feet! Get to the school! Run!” He kicked doors. He threw rocks at windows. He ran 3 miles in 35 minutes.
At 1:30am he got to the Black part of town — the lowest part. The sheriff wouldn’t warn them. Billy did. He banged on every door in “The Bottom.” He got to the last house at 1:55am. It was his own. He got his mama and 3 sisters and ran for the schoolhouse on the high ground.
At 2:07am the water hit. 20 feet high. It moved boxcars like toys. Arkansas City was underwater to the eaves. 2,000 people were in the schoolhouse. 300+ would have died in The Bottom. Billy had pneumonia for 2 months from being in the water.
The town gave him a new bike. The Red Cross gave him a medal. He died in 1989. The schoolhouse has a plaque. It doesn’t mention the sheriff. It says: “Billy Ray Thornton — He ran.”
