A heavy snow pack, a sudden thaw and more than 4 inches of rainfall between March 25 and 29 combined to create one of the worst floods in Battle Creek's history. A March 21, 1954, story in the Enquirer and News recounted that "water rose flush with the floor of the Carlyle St. Bridget, and two feet deep in Ellis Publishing Co. The McCamly St. Bridge pilings were weakening. The Ward Bldg. pilings, erected by the masons preparing to build that structure, were being washed away and the coffer dams were flooded.