•+The+River+Flood+of+1927

Find answers to the following questions and write them down. Be ready to share your answers in class.

 * 1. What caused the Mississippi River to flood in 1927? **

The flood began when heavy rains pounded the central basin of the Mississippi in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to capacity. The Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles. This water flooded an area 50 miles wide and more than 100 miles long. The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet (10 m). The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people in seven states.




 * 2. How many states in the Mississippi flood valley were affected by that flood? List each state by name. **

The flood affected Arkansas, Illinois , Kentucky , Louisiana , Mississippi , Missouri , Tennessee , Texas , Oklahoma and Kansas. Arkansas was hardest hit, with 14% of its territory covered by floodwaters. By May 1927, the Mississippi River below Memphis, Tennessee, reached a width of 60 miles.


 * 3. How much dynamite was used to blow up the levee at Caernarvon, LA,? **


 * 4. Why did they blow up the levee? **


 * 5. Was the dynamite used to blow up the levee necessary? Why or why not? **

On April 15, 1927 15 inches of rain fell in New Orleans in 18 hours. More than 4 feet of water covered parts of the city, and influential bankers in town met about how to guarantee the safety of the city, with the scale of flooding upriver already known. A few weeks later, about 30 tons of dynamite were set off on the levee at Caernarvon, Louisiana and sent water pouring through. This was intended to prevent New Orleans from experiencing serious damage, but flooded much of St. Bernard Parish and all of Plaquemines Parish's east bank. As it turned out, the destruction of the Caernarvon levee was unnecessary; several major levee breaks well upstream of New Orleans, including one the day after the demolitions, made it impossible for flood waters to seriously threaten the city.



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