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Mississippi: Difference between revisions
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In 1879, the [[United States Congress]] created the [[Mississippi River Commission]], whose responsibilities included aiding state levee boards in the construction of levees. Both white and black transient workers were hired to build the levees in the late 19th century. By 1882, levees averaged seven feet in height, but many in the southern Delta were severely tested by the flood that year.<ref name="John Otto Solomon 1999, pp.10-11" /> After the 1882 flood, the levee system was expanded. In 1884, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District was established to oversee levee construction and maintenance in the northern Delta counties; also included were some counties in [[Arkansas]] which were part of the Delta.<ref name="about the levee">{{cite web|url=http://www.leveeboard.org/about_the_levee/history/physical_development.html |title=About the levee: Physical development of a levee system |publisher=Leveeboard.org |access-date=July 30, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513142502/http://www.leveeboard.org/about_the_levee/history/physical_development.html |archive-date=May 13, 2008 }}</ref> | In 1879, the [[United States Congress]] created the [[Mississippi River Commission]], whose responsibilities included aiding state levee boards in the construction of levees. Both white and black transient workers were hired to build the levees in the late 19th century. By 1882, levees averaged seven feet in height, but many in the southern Delta were severely tested by the flood that year.<ref name="John Otto Solomon 1999, pp.10-11" /> After the 1882 flood, the levee system was expanded. In 1884, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District was established to oversee levee construction and maintenance in the northern Delta counties; also included were some counties in [[Arkansas]] which were part of the Delta.<ref name="about the levee">{{cite web|url=http://www.leveeboard.org/about_the_levee/history/physical_development.html |title=About the levee: Physical development of a levee system |publisher=Leveeboard.org |access-date=July 30, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513142502/http://www.leveeboard.org/about_the_levee/history/physical_development.html |archive-date=May 13, 2008 }}</ref> | ||
Flooding overwhelmed northwestern Mississippi in 1912–1913, causing heavy damage to the levee districts. Regional losses and the Mississippi River Levee Association's lobbying for a flood control bill helped gain passage of national bills in 1917 and 1923 to provide federal matching funds for local levee districts, on a scale of 2:1. Although U.S. participation in | Flooding overwhelmed northwestern Mississippi in 1912–1913, causing heavy damage to the levee districts. Regional losses and the Mississippi River Levee Association's lobbying for a flood control bill helped gain passage of national bills in 1917 and 1923 to provide federal matching funds for local levee districts, on a scale of 2:1. Although U.S. participation in World War I interrupted funding of levees, the second round of funding helped raise the average height of levees in the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta to {{convert|22|ft|m}} in the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book|first=John Otto |last=Solomon|title=The Final Frontiers, 1880–1930: Settling the Southern Bottomlands|location=Westport|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1999|page=50|isbn=978-0313289637}}</ref> Scientists now understand the levees have increased the severity of flooding by increasing the flow speed of the river and reducing the area of the floodplains. The region was severely damaged due to the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]], which broke through the levees. There were losses of millions of dollars in property, stock and crops. The most damage occurred in the lower Delta, including [[Washington County, Mississippi|Washington]] and [[Bolivar County, Mississippi|Bolivar]] counties.<ref>{{cite book|author=Solomon|date=1999|title=The Final Frontiers|page=70}}</ref> | ||
Even as scientific knowledge about the Mississippi River has grown, upstream development and the consequences of the levees have caused more severe flooding in some years. Scientists now understand that the widespread clearing of land and building of the levees have changed the nature of the river. Such work removed the natural protection and absorption of wetlands and forest cover, strengthening the river's current. The state and federal governments have been struggling for the best approaches to restore some natural habitats in order to best interact with the original riverine ecology. | Even as scientific knowledge about the Mississippi River has grown, upstream development and the consequences of the levees have caused more severe flooding in some years. Scientists now understand that the widespread clearing of land and building of the levees have changed the nature of the river. Such work removed the natural protection and absorption of wetlands and forest cover, strengthening the river's current. The state and federal governments have been struggling for the best approaches to restore some natural habitats in order to best interact with the original riverine ecology. | ||