THE FLOOD IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
FLOOD OF THE MISSISSIPPI INEVITABLE--SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI
THREATENED--BAD BREAK IN LEVEE AT HICKMAN--STRENGTHENING THE
LEVEES--MEMPHIS IN PERIL--DANGER ALL ALONG THE LINE--RIVER AT RECORD
STAGE--RISING HOPE--A NATIONAL PROBLEM.
On March 30th the Mississippi Valley was facing one of the worst floods
in its history, and the steady advance of the river threatened a large
section of country. The breaking of the levees along the Mississippi
itself, an inevitable result of the great floods in tributary streams,
had already begun. The district below St. Louis was a foot or more above
the flood stage, although the big rise had not arrived. Preparations
were being made to withstand a flood equal to that of 1912. Although the
levees had been made higher in some places, it was not to be expected
that they would be strong enough all along the river from St. Louis to
the sea. In the lower sections of the Mississippi Valley it was feared
there might be a repetition of the recent disasters in Ohio.
At Charleston, Missouri, on March 30th, the flood conditions were
growing more acute every hour. The city was filled with refugees from
all directions. Belmont and Crosno, on the Mississippi River, south of
Charleston, were submerged, and the residents fleeing to places of
safety.
East Prairie, Anniston and Wyatt, on the Cotton Belt Railroad, were shut
off from the world and obliged to receive mail through the Charleston
post-office.
SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI THREATENED
The St. Louis and San Francisco embankment between Kilbourne and
Kewanee, in the extreme southeastern part of Missouri, was cut early on
April 5th at the direction of the railway officials to prevent the
flooding of a large section of the track if the levee should break at a
weak spot. The gap permitted the drainage of a large volume of overflow.
One of the most thrilling of the stories was brought by Captain S. A.
Martin and Captain H. A. Jamieson, of the Sixth Missouri National Guard.
They were rescued in a launch from a section of levee which broke away
at Bird Point, Missouri.
Thirty-six of their men, they said, were on the levee section, which was
two hundred yards long and ten feet wide, and was floating down the
Mississippi.
Commander McMunn, of the Naval Reserves, at once arranged for a steam
launch and started out to rescue the Missouri soldiers. There was a
swift current in the river, and the safety of the men caused their
commanding officer much anxiety.
BAD BREAK IN LEVEE AT HICKMAN
The levee at Hickman, Kentucky, broke shortly after midday on April 4th,
after a night of continuous rain, followed by a driving up-stream wind,
flooding the factory district but causing no loss of life.
The break, however, did not relieve the river situation at other points,
because the water running through the break there was turned back to the
main stream by the Government or Reelfoot levee, two miles below the
town. The section flooded was occupied by several factories and the
homes of hundreds of workmen.
STRENGTHENING THE LEVEES
All along the Mississippi men were at work strengthening the levees. The
Government on March 29th prepared to rush 20,000 empty sacks to Modoc
and other weak points in the St. Francis levee district. They were
loaded on barges belonging to the Tennessee Construction Company of
Memphis. The boats, which were from one hundred and forty to one hundred
and sixty feet in length, were used to house Arkansas convicts sent from
Little Rock to do levee work.
This trouble was felt in many places when the rising tide threatened
life and property. Industrial anarchy and chaos reigned, and
overwhelming, paralyzing fear seized the people.
MEMPHIS IN PERIL
On April 5th the protection levee along Bayou Gayoso gave way, flooding
a small residence section in the northern portion of Memphis.
The break occurred at a point just west of the St. Joseph Hospital, and
within an hour several blocks of houses in the poorer section of the
city had been flooded.
Before night a section of the city three blocks wide and six to nine
blocks long was covered with from three to six feet of water.
DANGER ALL ALONG THE LINE
The banks at Hopefield Point early began to cave in. More than an acre
slid into the water just south of the point. The main shore line began
to crumble, indicating that the oncoming high water would wash more than
half the old point away.
Gangs of men were busy working the north levee in Helena, Arkansas.
Major T. C. Dabney, of the upper Mississippi levee district, sent out
crews to raise the lowest places. Major Dabney did not anticipate great
trouble, but said he believes in being prepared.
A break in the levee in Holly Bush and Mounds, Arkansas, in April, 1912,
put all the west bank lines out of commission for ten days. Miles of
track were washed away. Fearing a repetition of this, the railroads and
shippers agreed to operate a daily boat between Memphis and Helena.
The first break in the main Mississippi River levee occurred on April
8th on the Arkansas side, just south of Memphis. Three counties were
flooded by water which poured through a big cut in the wall. No loss of
life was reported, the inhabitants having been warned in time that the
levee was weakening.
RIVER AT RECORD STAGE
It was predicted that the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, Mississippi,
to the Gulf would go two feet higher than the highest stage reported in
1912, according to a flood warning issued by Captain C. O. Sherrill,
United States Army Engineer, on April 2d.
In 1912 the maximum of the river gauge at New Orleans showed nearly
twenty-two feet. At that height, and even with the tide reduced by
several immense crevasses, waters came over the New Orleans levees at a
number of places, despite the fact that they were topped with several
rows of sandbags.
Captain Sherrill ascribed the unprecedented flood entirely to the rains
in the river bed caused by last year's crevasses. He issued orders to
have the levees from Vicksburg to Fort Jackson on both sides raised
above the flood stage of 1912, and men and material were sent to all
points along the river to combat the expected high water in the lower
Mississippi.
Colonel Townsend, head of the Mississippi River Commission, ten days
previously predicted a stage as high as that of 1912, and sent out
warnings to all engineers in the valley. It was acting upon his advice
that Captain Sherrill began to assemble barges, quarter boats, bags,
material and tools to be sent to points between Vicksburg and New
Orleans for possible emergencies.
In explaining why the river from Vicksburg to the mouth of the river
would be higher than last year, Captain Sherrill pointed to the fact
that crevasses both below and above the stretch in 1912 lowered the
river there, whereas upon the present rise, with levees expected to
confine the water, the crest naturally would be higher. Because of this
fact the brunt of the high water was expected to strike that stretch,
and any possible trouble to be looked for could be expected there,
although the levees between Old River and Baton Rouge might also be in
danger.
RISING HOPE
The hopes of the people began to rise as they learned that the entire
Mississippi levee system was to be made two feet higher than the record
of the flood last year. It was expected the work would be completed
before the crest of the Ohio River flood reached the lower Mississippi
Valley.
On receipt of reports that two hundred families had been driven from
their homes in the lowlands of the Atchafalaya River, near Breaux
Bridge, Louisiana, owing to high water, and were in a destitute
condition, local relief committees from New Orleans rushed a large
quantity of supplies to that section.
The appeal said if immediate aid was not received it was feared many
would die of starvation. Inhabitants of the district were principally
foreigners, who had reclaimed a part of their truck farms, which were
destroyed by last year's flood. Their newly planted crops were
abandoned.
A NATIONAL PROBLEM
It is a curious fact that the Mississippi has done as much to kill the
old doctrine of states' rights as any other influence. For instance,
Louisiana, after spending thirty millions of dollars on river problems,
was quite willing to concede that the Mississippi was a national affair
and that Federal aid was altogether desirable. But it is plain that the
resources of the individual states as well as of the nation must be
utilized for the prevention of floods. This is a task so vast that a
united effort is required.