The Nation's Responses To Flood Disasters: A Historical Account

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PRE-20TH CENTURY: ISSUES OF
FEDERAL AUTHORITY AND
RESPONSIBILITY
A battle was raging. A battle to widen the responsibilities of
the federal government to encompass…the flood problems
within the lower Mississippi Valley.
THE GENESIS OF A PROBLEM
Water draws people to it. Native Americans established villages along rivers.
European colonists built homes along streams that provided transportation, water, power,
waste disposal, and commercial links. Succeeding generations continued to settle along
America’s waterways, risking periodic floods for the opportunity and convenience that
came with easy access to water.
And floods did come. These natural phenomena occur when water runoff from
the land exceeds the capacity of the stream channel. Floodwaters replenish soils,
recharge groundwater, and maintain wetlands. They became an economic and political
problem only when humans occupy space that streams require for their own natural flood
patterns. Both history and myth record innumerable floods. Our reactions to those floods
help define our humanity.
Perhaps members of Hernando De Soto’s expedition in 1543 observed the
earliest, large recorded flood along the Mississippi River. The Spanish adventurers
witnessed and noted an awesome event that had shaped the lives of local Indians for
centuries—one that would profoundly affect future generations of settlers. They also saw
something as significant as the flood itself. The Indians, they wrote, “built their houses
on the high land, and where there is none, they raise mounds by hand and here they take
refuge from the great flood.” 1 Approaches and programs for dealing with floods in the
1 Clark C. and others, Planet Earth, FLOOD, (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1982), pp. 65-87.