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

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THE 1930S TO THE 1960S:
BROADENING SOLUTIONS TO THE
NATION’S FLOOD PROBLEMS
The nation now moved closer to a balanced
approach to flood hazards.
CALLS FOR A BROADER APPROACH
Even as federal involvement in controlling floods through structural works
increased, calls came for a more comprehensive approach to the nation’s flood problems
due to some disturbing trends that had developed by the mid-1950s. Both the potential
nationwide damage from flooding and the cost of protection were rising. America’s
rapidly increasing urban population lay at the heart of the problem. The national flood
damage potential was increasing faster than it could be controlled under existing flood
protection construction programs. With this in mind, many pointed out the fallacy of
relying entirely on measures to redirect the paths of flood waters, citing lessons learned
from the “levees only” policy adopted some 75 years earlier for the lower Mississippi
River Valley. Others saw wise land use management practices within floodprone areas as
a neglected alternative to construction programs.
EVOLVING VIEWS ON HUMAN ADJUSTMENT TO FLOODS: HARLAN
H. BARROWS AND GILBERT F. WHITE
These cries of concern as to how we, as a nation, use our floodplains, did not
originate in the 20th century. A report issued in the early 1850s, at the direction of the
Congress, insisted the flood problem in the Mississippi River delta was growing because
more cultivation was taking place in the floodplain. 30 W J McGee, in his 1891 article
30 Ellet, 1853.