Essay On Mississippi River

Easy navigation and flood control encouraged trade along the river, which boosted the economy and led to an increase in jobs for traders, deckhands, etc. (US History TVA). In addition to providing increased trade opportunities, large amounts of money that would have been spent on the flood damage that were saved by the construction of these dams. A few years into the program, stations were created in the area to monitor flooding. Reports from these stations, in addition to computer calculations, show that the total cost of the flood damage up until 2007 would have been $5.8 billion (TVA River Neighbors). The flooding would have destroyed not only people’s homes, but also their businesses and livelihoods., which would have led to further unemployment.

Flooding of the settlement was problematic. By 1812, the settlers had built miles of levees on the banks of the river. For the next two hundred years, the surrounding wetlands were drained to eliminate swamps filled with yellow fever carrying mosquitoes and to encourage economic development. Draining water from peaty soils encouraged subsidence. The land which was just inches above sea level to begin with steadily sank. In combat of this, higher and stronger levees were built, tightening the straight jacket already placed upon the Mississippi River. The massive flooding of 1928 brought further flood control systems implemented by the Army Corps of Engineers with Congressional blessing. By the 1950’s, dramatic rates of land loss in Louisiana’s coastal zone stretched across 300 miles from Texas to Mississippi and inland 50 miles. (Tibbetts)

Numerous different aspects were altered due to the ruckus of Hurricane Katrina. The first major aspect was housing and location. Katrina nearly demolished 300,000 homes. The ascending sea level along the coast resulting from onshore winds is a storm surge. With a twenty-two foot storm surge in New Orleans and a twenty-seven foot storm surge in Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina averaged a shocking twelve foot storm surge. As a storm surge’s footage increases, the surge will continue to move inland farther and farther. Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge is documented as moving inland a total of twelve miles into the state of Mississippi (FAQS, 2013). Hurricane Katrina impacted a total of seven states. Five of these states were Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Kentucky and Ohio were two more states affected but in a different way. Because of the tremendous amount of water, Kentucky and Ohio were victims of the Mississippi River flooding. Some states experienced more extreme destruction than others. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana experienced Hurricane Katrina’s wrath firsthand. These three southern states were affected the worst by the massive storm (FAQS, 2013). Mississippi’s forest industry experienced a great amount of destruction losing 1.3 million acres of valuable forest land. The main cause of destruction in New Orleans was blamed on the failure of the levee system to stand its ground

Another vital component of agriculture that drove the Mississippi Delta into poverty was the eleven major floods. Even though these floods were historical, they still hindered the agricultural development of the Mississippi Delta preventing the creation of more jobs. One of the worst floods that devastated the Delta was the flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927. The flood left roughly 16.6 million acres, about 162,000

The flood happen early March of 1867, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It rained for four days non-stop the waters roto 56 feet tall that is taller than CSAS. The north had just won the Civil War. Slavery had just ended. Chattanoogans were being very self-reliant because they didn't want to ask they north for help because they just won the Civil War.

Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane’s storm surge — a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast — was the highest ever measured in the United States. Levees failed in New Orleans, resulting in political and social upheavals that continued a half decade later. (Laforet, New York Times)

The iconic terrain of the south, the Mississippi River, carries a variation of views and representations of its history. The Mississippi River is repeatedly the blame for causing accusations of racial discrimination and alterations to the southern region of the United States due to its historical currents and floods. In 1927, many believed the rain would subside; sparing the communities along the coastal area of the river, from what would coon become known as the flood that would change America. The 1920s was an era before the initiation of coordinated federal disaster management; because of this, some would add this to a long list of reasons as to why the Great Flood of 1927 tool hundreds of lives. In “Great Flood”, historian Stephen Ambrose

The environmental issue at hand is fairly obvious - the entire area was completely destroyed by the floods - including homes and businesses. Adams (2013) describes the surrounding area of Gerald Davis’s home as having “no plants, lots of weeds, and no trees. It was a dirt yard” (93). Dirt, in this case, is symbolic to these people. Everything that was once life became covered in dirt - much like the way the people were smothered by the stress of recovery. It was near impossible to have hope for the future with such a scenic view. Even

More than 7 trillion gallons of water fell in Louisiana and Mississippi over the course of eight days (Sergent et al., 2016). There have been at least 13 deaths recorded and over 40,000 homes have been destroyed. Rainfall numbers in double digits from a storm can bring havoc to an area, thus triggering rivers to ascend swiftly, and exceed flood levels (Dolce, 2016).

The hydrographic basin area affected is around 435 miles in width and 723 miles in length which totals close to 320,000 square miles. The flood area was 30,000 square miles. In St. Louis, the floodwall built out of interlocking concrete blocks in the 1960’s, kept the flood out. If the flood had been 2 feet higher, the whole downtown area of St. Louis would have been under water. It is estimated that most of the 700 privately built levees failed or were destroyed on the Missouri River. River levels were almost 20 feet over flood stage. The Missouri River was flooded for nearly 100 days. (Wikipedia)

I imagine Police and Fire personnel were aiding in recovery of trapped or stranded people. The three articles that I did read, stated that there was political reform caused because of this flood. This flood sparked Congress to begin building preparations for future floods. The Army Corps of Engineers stated that this flood is what passed the law (Skena, 2011). Congress began building reservoirs as a flood prevention and mitigation technique.

Page 8: I remember there was a terrible flood in Mississippi in the year of 1927 that left 1.5 million people homeless. There were also over 120,000 homes destroyed.

Imagine waking up to a bunch of dead rotting bodies all over your yard and road, well that happened in 1993 at little town named Hardin.The small town was located in Missouri. In 1993 a huge storm caused The Missouri River to overflow. It swept through Hardin destroying homes and buildings. It unearthed nearly 600 coffins from the local cemetery.The rain started falling in spring and ended in fall. More than 500 counties in nine Midwestern states were damaged and destroyed. People to that the great flood of 1993 was one of the most natural disasters in american history. 50 people died and 55,000 homes were destroyed. The disaster caused more than 15 billion dollars in damage

New Orleans is very vulnerable to the disaster. Geographically, 80% of New Orleans is positioned below sea level. The bowl shape city made it prone to flooding (see figure 2). In addition, the city is surrounded by the Mississippi River to the South, Lake Pontchartrian to the north and Lake Borgne to the east, which significantly intensified the flooding problem. Furthermore, New Orleans is built on a delta marsh, which means that the ground is very impermeable, allowing floodwater to stay remain and build upon the surface. Finally, because of the depletion of wetlands, there were very little interception of the storm surge.

Flooding, depending on how one deals with it, can be a great or awful thing. The day after Houston’s historic flood started with gloomy gray skies, horrendous humidity, and me sitting on the couch staring blankly at the T.V. The ecstatic voices of each advertisement after advertisement filled my ears. This was supposed to be a day of excitement and fun but it seemed as if the rain had destroyed those plans. I was leaving to New York for the summer and wouldn’t see my friends for months. Sick and tired of sitting down half the day, I called them up to see if they had any idea of what we could do to spend this last day together. They came up with an idea to make the most out of an otherwise terrible day. In no time they showed up, I was taken away in a car headed towards the bayou.