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

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.