Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1913-05-09
PROTECTION FROM FLOODS.

terest and of public importance to
the people of the Mississippi Valley
more urgent at this moment than
protection from floods.
Many persons have suffered most
intensely in loss of property, and in
the Ohio River valley in loss of life.
Many others have suffered and are
now suffering severely through the
inundation of their plantations and
other property, and because more
or less of this is the result of the
failure of particular spots in the
levee, there is more or less DISPOSE
ton on the part of some to denounce
the levee system and to seek other
means Of protection.
This fact is seen in the. various
schemes and projects proposed for
protection from floods, which are
wholly impracticable and which in
many cases are founded on absolute
ignorance. The Picayune has only
to mention a few that have come to
1T, and which are not printed be-
cause, in the first place, of the great
pressure on its columns, and in the
second, because they are not prac-
tical, and would accomplish no
good result, while costing immense
amounts of money and requiring
years to complete.
For instance, one proposes to
straighten the Mississippi River,
getting rid of the numerous bends
and convert it into a straight sluice
through which the food water would
be rushed to the sea without troub-
ling itself to break the levees.
The bends in the river are caused
by the caving banks. A quicksand
somewhere in the river bank is
washed out, and the everything bank
and everything on it falls into the
river. This earth and other material
falling into the channel form a sand
bar, which obstructs the flow of the
water and causes more caving as the
water tries to force its way around
the obstacle.
In this way all the bends in the
river were caused before any levees
were built, and that is the reason
the river is crooked. The mud and
sand falling into the river obstruct
the flow of the water and are OBJ
stacles to navigation, and the reme-
! dy for that is to stop the caving of
the banks.
This can be done by revetting or
shielding from the corrosive force
OF the current every place where the
caving occurs. Good, firm clay new
er caves. There are many stretches
along the river where there is no
caving, but where the quicksands
underlis the top surface there the
caying occurs, and unless stopped
it will go on forever.
The remedy is to shield the banks
where the caving occurs and put
stop to it. Then build good, strong
levees on the protected banks and
the work is done. This will not
straighten the bends, but it will
stop the formation of other bends,
and it will get rid of the sandbars,
because the current will sweep them
out and give free flow to the water.
The care of the river and the safe
ty OF the great valley would be as
sured if the system of bank protec-
ton and levees could be carried con-
tinuously to completion. But here
tofore, with the insufficient supply
of money available, the work was
necessarily carried on in a piece
meal way, and that has been the
only trouble.
But the fact that with the con-
struction incomplete as it is, vast
deal of protection has been accom-
plished, that ought to encourage
the people and assure them that
no mistake has been made in the
method adopted, and that full pro-
lection will be realized in the not
distant future. -Picayune.