The Mississippi River Flood of 1927

The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 is still regarded by most historians as the nation’s most destructive flood. Beginning in the summer of 1926, strong, continuous rainy weather struck the Mississippi River’s central basin. Melting snow from the north in the following Fall and Winter months compounded with heavy rain. This created a scary combination of unseen amounts of untamed water that lead to what is considered by many as “the greatest flood in history," hence the name "The Great Flood." The unprecedented levels of water became too much and eventually caused the entire levee system along the Mississippi River to collapse. Flooding peaked in the Lower Mississippi River near Mound Landing, Mississippi, and Arkansas City, Arkansas, and broke levees along the river in at least 145 places (Opie 339). A flood of this pure force and destruction had never been seen in the U.S. before.

The Great Flood of 1927 left 8 states– Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana– devastated. An estimated total of 20,000 square miles of land were flooded. 226 Americans were killed, and more than 750,000 were forced to leave their homes (Heersink 262). Around 225,000 livestock and well over a million poultry were lost.

• At the time, the U.S. Legislative Department estimated $500 million in damage at the time (and that was almost a century ago!) (Slivka 26).
• The U.S. federal government spent about $7.5 million on relief work, while state and local relief efforts produced around $10 million that was spent.
• Of the federal relief money that went to “river and harbor work” (Mississippi 42), $5 million was taken from the Mississippi River Commission (MPC), and $2 million was taken from funds of the Secretary of War, authorized by President Calvin Coolidge.
• Public contributions to the Red Cross produced over $17 million that was spent on flood relief (Mississippi 41).
• The severe amount of debt that the U.S. federal government acquired from the Great Flood was arguably one of the early causes of the Great Depression, which began 2 years later in 1929.

• In 1927, the Army Corps of Engineers thought that they had achieved newfound success with controlling the Mississippi through a “levees only” strategy designed to “lessen the volume of water from a river, slow the current's velocity, and decrease the geologic slope of its natural bed” (Bearden 80).

-The plan was pretty simple: Use geographical features like hills and valleys, and manmade features like levees, flood gates, and dams as "lines of defense" or barriers against flood water by "flattening" the landscape.

• The "levees-only" plan completely backfired. By the spring of ‘27, the river had risen dramatically. Heavy erosion and sediment deposition of the river banks combined with a quickly rising sea level caused the water to overpower the levees.
• When the flood started to get bad, a decision was made to destroy parts of the levees with dynamite to allow excess water to run through the holes in the levees in an attempt to tame the water by spreading it out and moving it downstream (Spencer 1).

• The decision to use dynamite to breech the levees and let the water flow downstream likely affected New Orleans most. New Orleans has a peak height of about 9 feet above sea level, and during the flood water levels rose to about 21 feet (Day 2). The levees in New Orleans could not hold all the water, and eventually were dynamited, creating a 2 km gap (Day 1). People living in New Orleans had to evacuate because the water had flooded their homes and land, largely due to more than half of the city being below sea level.

• The Mississippi remained in flood stage for 153 days (Bearden 84), and the “levees only” strategy proved no match for the Great Flood. River engineers had to start from scratch with their flood prevention plans.

• It was discovered shortly after the Great Flood that the best solution for flood prevention on the Mississippi was "multilayered protection" (Pinter 1) and assistance from dams, crevasses in the landscape, spillways, levees, reservoirs, and wetlands ( to absorb rainwater) prove to be the best solution to prevent flooding. All of these working together are the safest plan against flooding.
• *Many floods on the Mississippi over the century have proved that levees are not very reliable, and too much engineering can lead to more flooding. Levees are checked every year around the Mississippi to ensure sustainability.
• Crevasses function during high water via temporary channels through low points along the natural levee, forming crevasse splays (Day 8). Water is released in pulses, which is steady and is not an overwhelming volume of water that will cause excess flooding like in New Orleans during the Great Flood. Also, sediment is directed out of the main river channels and through crevasses to keep river banks from eroding and reduce flood stage down river.

• With sea levels around the world continually rising, the issue of flood management is becoming more and more concerning, especially on the Mississippi; therefore, river engineering strategies are constantly evolving.

• The Bonnet Carré Spillway in Louisiana empties excess water from the Mississippi into Lake Pontchartrain to take the load off of local New Orleans levees. The spillway was built immediately after the Great Flood of 1927. The 58,000 ft long structure is an important flood prevention tool when water levels become alarmingly high. The spillway opened last June while the Mississippi River reached all-time high water levels.

The flood acted as a catalyst to the hardships many African Americans faced during and after the flood. It is estimated that of those who lost their homes, more than half a million were black.

• During the time of the flood, Jim Crow Laws were enforced, allowing for things like lower food rations and a lowered standard of living for African Americans.
• Railroads and plantations were affected by the flood and put fear into its laborers, majority being African American, since they were some of the few sources of income African Americans relied on.
• To put it in perspective, about 95% of the agricultural labor force in the delta lowlands were supplied by African Americans.

• The Mississippi Flood of 1927 happened during the Great Migration of African Americans from south to north, therefore, white planters were extremely conscious of black movement and put mechanisms into place to try to prevent the further loss of black laborers. (Mizelle 63)
• Many African Americans were kept in refugee camps created by railroad and plantation companies with the help of the American Red Cross. The living conditions ranged from satisfactory to harsh. At many of these camps national guard troops prevented refugees from leaving. African American refugees complained that whites were able to move freely without consequence.
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began its fight for equal civil rights for African Americans, who were treated horribly and brutally forced to work basically as slaves in the flood relief effort.

• The Great Flood of 1927 was a monumental event in American history on an economic, technological, and social level. It left hundreds of thousands of people in 8 different states in total disaster, killing hundreds, leaving thousands homeless, and destroying property, farms, businesses, etc.
• The flood is believed by many to have helped plummet the American economy in the late 1920's, leading to the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression.
• It completely changed the way rivers are managed during heavy rainfall and flooding on the Mississippi, around the country, and around the world. The flood proved that early 20th century river engineering and river management was faulty and had to be improved. The modern breakthroughs in flood prevention and river engineering in the U.S. would not be as significant if it wasn't for the Great Flood.
• Finally, the social impact that the flood left on America was huge. African-Americans trying to migrate from Southern to Northern states and seeking equality found it increasingly difficult to survive in America. Half of African-Americans in the states affected lost their homes, and many were separated from family members and forced into labor by Southern whites who took advantage of racist, Jim Crow laws. Meanwhile, America was slowly changing culturally as more and more African-Americans and minorities started to stand up against discrimination, injustice, harsh treatment, and inequality.
• The next few decades following the flood included tremendous social and cultural change in the U.S. Overall, the devastating effects of the flood lasted for countless years; and, in some ways, they are still felt to this day.

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