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

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8 The Nation’s Responses to Flood Disasters: A Historical Account The Flood Control Act of 1917 was important in four respects: 13 1. It marked the first time that Congress appropriated funds openly and primarily for the purpose of flood control. As one congressman said during the debate on the bill, the measure “removes the mask” from years of covert federal flood control spending under the “pretext” of navigation improvements. 14 2. It established a congressional commitment to fund a long-range and (it was believed) comprehensive program of flood control for the lower Mississippi and Sacramento Rivers. Specifically, the act authorized the Secretary of War to spend $45 million for flood control and navigation improvements along the lower Mississippi south of the mouth of the Ohio River and $5.6 million for the Sacramento River, which included the first use of flood bypass measures. 3. It introduced the principle of including the requirement for local financial contributions in flood control legislation. The act stipulated that local interests should pay at least one dollar for every two dollars spent by the federal government. In addition, local interests were to pay the cost of acquiring rights-of-way for construction and maintenance expenses once levees were completed. This meant that the local levee boards actually paid about half the total cost of the levee program between 1917 and 1928. 15 4. It authorized the Corps to undertake, on a watershed basis, examinations and surveys for flood control improvements and to provide information regarding the relationship of flood control to navigation, waterpower, and other uses. Despite talk of a nationwide plan for flood control when the House Flood Control Committee was established, nothing was done beyond the programs for the lower Mississippi and Sacramento rivers. According to Arnold “the doors had been opened, but not very wide.” 16 During this time, the Corps remained committed to the “levees only” policy endorsed some 50 years earlier to control the Mississippi River. Having successfully passed a major flood in 1923, the Mississippi River Commission proclaimed in 1927 that the levee system “is now in condition to prevent the disastrous effects of floods.” 17 However, conditions were developing that would forever change the nature of flood control on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. 13 Arnold, pp. 13-15. 14 Arnold, p. 14. 15 Ibid. 16 Arnold, p. 15. 17 Clark, p. 73.
The Early 20th Century: A Growing Federal Interest 9 The Great Flood of 1927. The great flood of 1927 tested the “levees only” policy and demonstrated the major problems associated with a one-sided approach to flood control. Much of the levee system along the lower Mississippi was breached or overtopped, and the flood torrent fanned out over the flat delta. At the flood’s highest point, the river spread 50 to 100 miles wide in a “chocolate sea” stretching 1,000 miles from Cairo, Illinois, at the mouth of the Ohio River, to the Gulf of Mexico. The official death toll was 246 but may have reached 500. More than 700,000 people were homeless. Over 150 Red Cross camps cared for in excess of 325,000 refugees for several months after the flood. Some 137,000 buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed. Property damage topped $236 million, an enormous figure even in those pre-Depression years. Nearly 13 million acres of land (about 20,000 square miles) were flooded. 18 In the book Rising Tide, 19 John Barry provides a compelling account of the events leading up to the 1927 Mississippi River flood and how the calamity changed America. The 1927 flood event was arguably the greatest natural disaster to befall this nation in terms of total human misery and suffering. The flood of 1927 united the nation with respect to flood control, at least insofar as the Mississippi River was concerned. Doubts still lingered about a nationwide flood control policy. Public opinion favored a program in which the federal government paid for flood control in the Mississippi Valley. Adopting this position meant reversing the current federal policy, which was based on the reasoning that even though the protective levees benefited the whole nation, local interests benefited the most and should share in the protection costs. To President Coolidge, federal funding meant federal control and abdication of local responsibility. When congressional plans emerged without any local cost contribution, the President threatened a veto. 20 The Flood Control Act of 1928. A series of political compromises ensued, leading to the Flood Control Act of 1928. In passing the act, Congress adopted a flood control plan that abandoned the levees only approach. The government recognized that major floods, such as happened in 1927, involved drainage from far outside the lower Mississippi valley, that locals were unable to finance effective flood control measures, and that local governments were already making enormous contributions to flood control. The act provided that the federal government would pay for building expanded protective measures. The non-federal contribution would consist of providing rights of way (for the levees along the main stem; the federal government ended up paying for flowage rights of way) and having levee districts and state governments maintain the levees. 18 Moore and Moore, p. 6. 19 Barry, John M., Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997). 20 Moore and Moore, p. 6.
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Page 10 and 11: CONTENTS National Weather Service .
Page 13 and 14: OVERVIEW The floods of the 1990s an
Page 15 and 16: 1 PRE-20TH CENTURY: ISSUES OF FEDER
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6 THE 1990S: DISASTER ASSISTANCE PR
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The 1990s: Disaster Assistance Prev
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APPENDIX B: SELECT PUBLICATIONS, FE
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GLOSSARY ASFPM, “the Association
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The Nation's Responses To Flood Disasters: A Historical Account

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