Did you know? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today oversees a comprehensive flood risk reduction system on the Lower Mississippi River that includes levees, floodwalls, pumping stations, floodways and other measures to ensure minimum risk to the people and commerce in the region. But just over 100 years ago it was a much different story. Then, the Federal government had little interest in getting involved in the flood control business. This short-sighted national policy was brought up sharply by two consecutive and disastrous flood years. In 1912, the river’s crest exceeded all prior records at all gages south of Cairo, Ill. Twelve crevasses took out 14 miles of levees and 10,812 square miles of land was inundated. The only note of encouragement came from the announcement that the existing levees had saved as much property as had been destroyed by the breaches. Memphis became the temporary home to more than 19,000 flood refugees and the editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper angrily demanded that the government appropriate $100 million to build levees if that much would be required. President Taft, although still dubious about the future of river commerce, asked Congress for an immediate appropriation of $1.5 million to repair breaks in the levee system. Congress granted the request within 24 hours, and included an additional $700,000 for relief of the flood victims. Furthermore, when the River and Harbor Bill came before Congress in that year, they appropriated $8 million more than requested while stipulating that $4 million be used for levee construction. The Flood of 1912 caused such an about-face in national thinking that, when the Presidential nominating conventions were held later in the year, all three parties including Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party incorporated flood-control into their party platforms. These photos show some of the effects of the 1912 flood in and around Memphis.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:12:17 +0000
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