The Worst Flood Of The Mississippi River Basin

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes that hit America. Federalism played a major role in the rescue missions for this natural disasters. It’s evident that the government failed in many ways during Hurricane Katrina. Federalism plays a huge part in preparing for natural disasters. The powers were not equally shared within the levels of government, which made the local government weak and had to completely rely on the federal government. The government of U.S. was not prepared enough for hurricane Katrina.

As I was reading as The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, I was shocked!The closest relation that I could possibly think of that I have seen is the rainfall flood of 2008 in Saline County, Illinois. I remember going outside and wading in water, it was almost impossible to drive and buildings were flooded majorly. “Excess of 12 inches above normal.” (Flood of 2008) When I walked outside, I could not believe my eyes! I didn’t even think it was possible for Carrier Mills to get as much rain as it had

To put the tale into proper prospective, the Mississippi Basin Flood of 1993 carried 435,000 cubic feet of water per second past Iowa and one million cubic feet per second past St. Louis after the contribution from the Missouri River. The Great Flood

The flood of 1997 started with a wetter the normal fall then ground froze early that year which made it easier to freeze all the liquid. When all the snow melted the water was released onto the surface and it made it easy for the flood to happen. When the climate changed is when all the flooding occurred. After the red river along the north dakota and minnesota was flooded it started to flood more often and continue to happen. The flooding of 1997 wrecked houses and old buildings it made it hard to drive and to get from here to there. The pastures were wrecked making it hard for animals to get around because all of the mucky fields which was making the animals sick.

It rained for a whole week straight none stop. It even had as much water as in the Mississippi river at the time. It caused a lot of damage through the flood costing the U.S 17 million dollars just to fix the damages that happened with the flood. The American Red Cross team had to step in help with the damages done by this flood. No one knew why it was raining for a whole week straight.

When a huge storm caused the Missouri River to overflow in 1993, its water swept through Hardin. Water swept through Hardin,destroying homes and other buildings. Then something terrible happened that the town would never be the same: the dead rose up from the cemetery. It destroyed homes and buildings, and unearthing nearly 600 coffins from the local cemetery. As storm after storm pummeled the Midwestern United States, rivers began to overflow their banks. Throughout the summer, floodwater destroyed homes and businesses, and roads and bridges were washed away. The flooding didn’t and unit fall, and by then, more 20 million acres of land. Fifty people had died, and 55,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

The Johnstown flood of 1889 is often remembered as the worst disaster that was caused by dam failure in America’s history. Over 2000 lives were lost, and about 17 million dollars in property damage was done to the town of Johnstown. Many of the leading industrialists of the 19th century were members of the club that owned the South Fork dam in 1889, drawing in nationwide attention. The relief effort was one of the first huge non-wartime disasters for the American Red Cross. Once again in the years 1936 and 1977 similar flooding would occur, ravaging the town of Johnstown, wreaking havoc on the lives of civilians.

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)

In Response to the Great Flood of 1927, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928. This was because the flood was the first time levees had been built to the Mississippi River Commission’s standards and they had failed. To remedy this problem Congress put $325 million towards flood control measures and the act also provided that the federal government pays for flood control measures along the Mississippi River. According to Hickox a total of 7,000 miles of levees and $25 billion has been spent on the Mississippi and its tributaries since 1927 (Hickcox, David H. 1994). Although billions of dollars have been spent on improving the Mississippi Valley for settlement and commercial uses disaster still persist.

In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount

The responsibility for maintaining existing levees and building new ones falls to the federal, state and local governments. In reality, the costs of most infrastructure projects are in the hundreds-of-millions to billions of dollars. This means that the cost burden must fall on the federal government (Webster). The federal government, however, failed to provide the necessary resources to build protective infrastructure for U.S. citizens since, “Under the Bush administration there was little money for nor interest in internal improvements, as the federal dollar was spent mainly on the military while the nation's infrastructure continued to deteriorate” (George). Had more money been spent on internal improvements, more levees could have been built and the impact of the storm lessened.

The United States at this time was the target of a series of different natural disasters. Ranging from the “Ash Wednesday” storm which accounted for well over $300,000,000 in damages to an earthquake which measured 9.2 on the Richter scale and in turn resulted in multiple tsunamis that rolled down the pacific coast and resulted in over a hundred losses of life (Maria). These kind of disasters did not let up in the 60’s and 70’s as the United States was hammered with a series of massive earthquakes and hurricanes. Legislation recognized there needed to be a solution and so in response the Disaster Relief Act was created giving presidents more power in their declarations at the time of the disasters. Since the first government intervention in 1803 until 1970, more than one hundred federal agencies were in some manner involved in some aspect of responding to the emergencies when they took place. The overlap between state issued programs and federal installed policies was concerning. That is why in the year 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed into order the Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA). As of present day, this is the program we all now look to in times of a disaster. They strive to support not only the citizens but also the first responders to ensure we can work together to improve, build and sustain our capability to recover from all hazards that are associated with these emergencies. FEMA does not work completely alone however, and in 2001 homeland security stepped up its role in dealing with disasters (Haddow). It was the terror attacks on September 11th that sparked their involvement and their coordination with FEMA made for quick and effective decisions during one of the United States’ time of greatest

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

This spring, record breaking floodwaters along the Mississippi River caused massive damage in nine states, totaling over $25 billion dollars in damage (Watts, 2011). In most areas the floodwaters have receded, however there is concern that even a little rain could cause more flooding due to the already saturated land. As cities and towns are beginning the restoration process, one thing caused by the flooding waters cannot be restored. Pollutants’ such as nitrogen from fertilizer, due to this area being primarily composed of farming land, is making its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Every year pollutants traveling in the Mississippi River enter the Gulf and contribute to the Coastal Dead Zone; however, this year the Dead Zone in the Gulf

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