The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-24
SITUATION IN THE SOUTH.
Reason why the mississippi Flood
VIII he Slow i'm Receding.

LOUISVILLE Ky, March 22.-The Cour-
ier-Journal says: A week ago the Weather
Bureau predicted that there would be no
abatement to the floods in the lower Mis-
sissippi basin until April l. AS the situation
now appears in that section. ii is safe to
say that there are many families who cam
not return to their homes beside the river
in Arkansas, Mississippi or northern Louis
lana before April 10. When it is remem-
bered how rapidly the water flowed past
here when the Ohio was at fioodtide three
weeks ago. and the water was above the
danger line only nine days. 1t may seem
difficult to understand why the floods in the
lower Mississippi. which have been growing
steadily worse during the past two weeks,
should yet be expected to continue far
above the normal stage for three weeks
to come. No more rain has fallen on the
average in that section than fell in the up
per portion of the Ohio valley about Feb.
%. and in the lower portion since then; but
the accumulation of all of this rainfall is
now found in the waters of the lower Mis-
sissippi.
Just before the recent flood attained its
greatest height here the water was passing
by Louisville at the rate of from 10 TO IL
miles an hour. That it had such a speed
was due to these two reasons: First, the
bed of the river was not hlled up by a pre-
viouS high stage of water-on the contrary,
the stage was unusually low; second. Pitts
burg is $40 feet above sea level, and Cairo
$50 feet, which gives the waters of the Ohio
a fall of 500 feet to 500 miles from source
10 mouth. The rate of travelling, however,
must necessarily be diminished after the
waters pass Cairo, as there is not more
than 800 feet fall from low water mark at
Cairo to the surface of the waters in the
Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Missis-
Sippi. which is a distance of about $50 miles,
or little more than that from Pittsburg TO
Cairo.
As the water resulting from the original
flood in the upper Ohio had the right of
way, the water that passed her three weeks
ago is now at the bottom along the section
from Vicksburg to the guif. The waters
from the Indiana floods form the bulk of
the tide from Cairo TO Nicksburg, while the
more recent rains over the section including
Tennessee, the lower Ohio and central and
lower portions of the Mississippi valleys
form the crest over all.
If it had been impossible for any water
now in the lower Mississippi basin to es-
cape through the various breaks reported.
or If all the water from Cairo TO the gulf
was confined within the leveeS, the rate of
movement to the surface water. having a
fall of only 300 feet to about $50 miles. could
not be more than four miles per hour. But
now that the waters have spread far and
wide. making the breadth of the river ex-
coed thirty miles in some places. the rate
of movement cannot exceed two or three
miles an hour.
1t has long been known the mouth of the
Mississippi is being badly choked up by
large deposits of alluvium extending to q
considerable distance out in the gulf. Under
cOnultlOnS ike the present the m
forming at the bottom all the way from the
mouth Of the Ohio TO the gulf over which
stretch the waters are travelling slowly,
must be ar important factor in retarding
the flow. An idea of the immense amount
of sediment may be formed in miniature by
observing that resulting in a glass of wa
ter in its present muddy state. Other de-
bris. too. picked up along the line and
lodged here and there retards the flow OF
water now in the flooded districts of the
lower Mississippi. And last, but by no
means least. of all these resistances, is
that of the daily recurring tides from the
gulf. which. IL is said. are seen as far up
the river as Vicksburg.