Posted: September 7th, 2022

The Mississippi Flood of 1927

The Mississippi Flood of 1927
Abstract
The Mississippi flood of 1927 is considered one of the most catastrophic river floods that impacted the United States. The flood affected the states of Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Missouri. The flood impact included the destruction of crops, an approximate of 137,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, 700,000 families were displaced from their homes, and 250 people lost their lives across the impacted states. After the levee-only strategy’s failure, new catastrophic management approaches have seen been implemented, including dams, spillways, reservoirs, crevasses in the landscape, and wetlands. An approximate of a total of $500 million in damage was experienced during the Mississippi flood, with African Americans experiencing the highest loss in terms of their homes and workplaces.
Introduction
The Mississippi flood of 1927 is considered one of the most catastrophic river floods that impacted the United States. The flood is considered “The Great Flood” because it is hard and has a profound impact on the economic and flood risk management strategies. The continuous rainfall that began in the summer of 1926, combined with melting snow in Fall and heavy rain in winter months, forced the entire levee system that had been enforced along the Mississippi River to control the floods to collapse. The heavy rainfall inundated highly in Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Missouri, with at least other 145 places affected at a lower rate (Opie, 1998). The flood impact included the destruction of crops, an approximate of 137,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, 700,000 families were displaced from their homes, and 250 people lost their lives across the impacted states.
Major Events in the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood
The events leading to the 1927 Mississippi flood include the August to December 1926 weather changes. The upper Midwestern U.S. started experiencing heavy rains in the middle of August 1926, with three storms that saw a two weeks continuous rainfall. By September, the water level had risen, causing a dozen rivers and streams to overflow their banks, inundating towns. In early October 1926, the rain had resulted in the Mississippi River’s rise, washing out bridges and railroads (RMS, 2007). Although the rain stopped by the end of October, it resumed in mid-December 1926, with storms being experienced across Mississippi Valley, the north experiencing snow falling, while the heavy rains experienced in south and east. Although the Mississippi River Commission had constructed a 1,100 miles levee along the lower Mississippi River, the levees had been weakened by the continuous rain, making them ineffective in holding back the water.
The rain intensified in mid-January 1927, resulting in over 100,000 acres flooded in Arkansas following the White and Little Red rivers flooding (RMS, 2007). With the combination of the rain and the snow fell from the Rockies, the flooding continued to intensify, and by March, almost every levee was at risk of collapsing. Although the 24 hours patrol were conducted to observe for leave breaches and sandbag the levees to prevent overtopping, the amount of rain experienced in April resulted in a high rise of water in the upper and lower Mississippi Valley rivers forced the levees to collapse. The collapse of the levees meant that the towns along the river were exposed to the floods.
River Engineering Strategy
The impact of the Mississippi flood of 1927 was contributed by the failed plan implemented by the Army Corps of Engineering in controlling the flow of Mississippi by the use of levees (Bearden, 2003). The levees strategy’s design was based on three functions, including lessening the volume of water from the river, slowing down the velocity of the current, and decreasing the geologic slope of the river’s natural bed. The levees could not hold the water with a major collapse of the levees in New Orleans that created a 2 km gap, Dorena, Missouri creating a gap of 48 km, Mounds Landing creating a 19 km gap, and the breach of the levee at McCrea, Louisiana left the surrounding areas more exposed to the floods.
The Legacy of Mississippi Flood of 1927
The flood that inundated 70,000 square kilometers of land triggered the development of new catastrophic management approaches. Some of the approaches that have seen been implemented by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) include dams, spillways, reservoirs, crevasses in the landscape, wetlands, and levees. One of the river engineering strategies that were immediately after the 1927 floods in the construction of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in Louisiana. The spillway was constructed to redirect excess water flow in the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain, which help in reducing the load on the New Orleans Levees. The Spillway structure, which is 58,000 ft long, has proved to be important in flood prevention (Dengler & Meite, 2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). For instance, in 2018: 2024 – Write My Essay For Me | Essay Writing Service For Your Papers Online, when the Mississippi River water level become alarmingly high, the spillway opened after the river hitting an all-time high level to direct the water into Lake Pontchartrain, preventing possible flooding.
The flood also saw the Flood Control Act that changed the federal government’s role in flood risk management signed into law by President Coolidge in 1928. The act saw major changes under the direction of the Secretary of War and the Chief Engineers’ supervision in the flood control system. The flood control system involved developing floodways, improving and stabilizing levee channels, and improving tributary basin. The funding of the flood control system was boosted by appropriating a total of $325 million to help develop tools to divert the flow of the Mississippi River.
The Impact of the Mississippi Flood of 1927
The Mississippi flood of 1927 had a devastating impact on the economy. The economic losses experienced during and in the aftermath of the flooding include an approximate of $130 billion due to the destruction of residential and $160 million due to the loss incurred in the destruction of the commercial structures (RMS, 2007). The table below summarizes the approximate economic loss in terms of residential and commercial structures from the 1927 Mississippi Flood in seven affected states.
Estimated economic losses from the 1927 Mississippi Flood
State Line of Business
Residential Loses ($ Billions) Commercial Losses ($Billions)
Arkansas &30.0 &14.5
Illinois &0.2 &0.1
Kentucky &0.3 &0.5
Louisiana &37.0 &15.0
Mississippi &8.0 &3.0
Missouri &6.5 &3.5
Tennessee &9.5 &6.0
Total $91.5 $42.6

According to the United States Legislative Department, an approximate of $500 million in damage was experienced during the Mississippi flood (Slivka, 2005). The relief work expenditures were also high. With the federal government spending an approximate of $7.5 million, the affected states and local relief efforts spent an approximate of $10 million, while an approximate of &17 million from public contributions channeled to the Red Cross was spent. The African Americans were highly affected by the flood acting as a catalyst to the hardship that most African Americans faced during and after the flood. More than half a million of the individuals who lost their homes are estimated to be black, with hundreds of thousands ending up displaced from their communities and workplaces (Coyle, 2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). The railroads and plantations were destroyed and damaged by the flood, leaving most African Americans laborers unemployed, considering the high number of them dependent on railroads and plantations.
Conclusion
The Mississippi flood of 1927 is considered a monumental event in American history due to its impact on the economically, technologically, and social level. The flood, which left thousands displaced, hundreds dead, property, businesses, and farms destroyed, contributed to implementing new disaster management strategies and river engineering and river management systems.

References
Bearden, R. (2003). Arkansas’ Worst Disaster: The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies, vol. 34, no. 2.
Coyle, L. (2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). The Great Mississippi River Flood Of 1927. National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved from https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/great-mississippi-river-flood-1927
Dengler, R., & Meite, B. (2019: 2024 – Online Assignment Homework Writing Help Service By Expert Research Writers). The Mississippi River Flood of 1927. StoryMaps. Retrieved from https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/900b59aca0774173ab8f8e648f6dbfd4
Opie, J. (1998). Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. The Mississippi Quarterly, no. 2, p. 339.
RMS. (2007). The 1927 Great Mississippi Flood: 80-Year Retrospective. Retrieved from https://forms2.rms.com/rs/729-DJX-565/images/fl_1927_great_mississippi_flood.pdf
Slivka, J. (2005). Another Flood That Stunned America. U.S. News & World Report, vol. 139, no. 9. search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=18124615&site=eds-live.

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