The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-03-30
The Great LeveAs
Withstand Flood

Memphis. Tenn, March 27.-Floot
warning that unusually high water
would send the Mississippi river be.
yond the flood stage in its lowe,
reaches gave the people Of the lower
Mississippi Valley comparatively little
concern this spring, Ten years ago
such warning by the weather bu
reau would have caused immediate
preparations for an inevitable general
overflow over an area Of hundreds of
square miles. The absence of fear
this year is due to the great levee or
cmbankment system which has been
completed in the last few years to hold
the Mississippi to its foodway.
River engineers say that the levees
along both sides of the Mississippi
from the mouth of the Ohio to the
Gulf of Mexico are now constructed to
such dimensions that they will hold
the river even should it go four or
five feet higher than it ever has gone
They say there is but one point in
the entire system toward which the
least anxiety is felt and this section
of the embankments will hold flood
stage this year equallng the record
high water of 1918. Near Helena.
Ark, some 60 miles down stream
from Memphis, a short link has not
been completed to standard dimen
sions. Elsewhere, even at places where
construction is comparatively new.
the huge embankments have settled
and are strong enough to withstand
far more pressure than the Missis
slppi, in her most terrific rampayes,
ever has displayed.
Only seven times since river sta
tistics have been compiled, dating
back to 1872, has the Mississippi gone
over the 40-foot mark on the Mem
phis guage. The food or bank-full
stage is 35 feet. The levees, engi
neers say, will resist so foot stage.
The last serious overflow, when a
wide area was inundated and much
damage done by flood waters, was
in 1918 when the river climbed to the
unprecedented height of 46.5 feet,
Memphis guage. At that time, how
ever, the levee system had not been
built to the standard that government
engineers had mapped out as neces-
sary for all time. In the spring of
1920 the river reached stage of 4O.3
feet, Memphis guage, but there was
no overflow. The levee construction
between 1918 and 1920, due largely
to aid in the form Of $50, ,OOO,OO ap-
preparation by congress in 1917, gave
the people of the lower valley full con-
fidence that the levee system, would
forever end the disastrous floods.
For more than 200 years, or since
the city of New Orleans was laid out
by French engineers in 1717, en-
bankments have been built along the
river banks to hold the river to its
channel.
Prior to the Civil war considerable
headway had been Asde to protect
the lowest and best "a eltural lands
but the. series OF enDahklnents were
not connected up and the overfows,
where there were ne restraining walls,
always threatened those sections
which had only loca protection. The
cost of building the embankments was
tremendous, so much SO that it could
not be done with desired rapidity
either by local districts, by the coun-
ties or by the states. Long effort was
made to get Federal help but it was
not until 1917 that funds in sufficient
proportion were forthcoming. Since
that time, however, the work has pro-
gressed very rapidly.
The Mississippi river now is hem
med in by chain Of levees from Mis-
souri, and Tennessee to below the city
Of New Orleans, entertainments that
are continuous and that total more
than 1,500 miles in length. At some
places they tower more than SO feet
high and their crown is as wide as an
average street with the base often
more than 800 feet wide.
Before the levees were built, the
area OF land subject to overflow was
in excess of 100000 acres, or an
area greater than the combined area
of Delaware, Connecticut, New Jer-
sey and Massachusetts. Since the
levees have afforded more and more
protection, the region has been re-
claimed rapidly and put into cult
vation so that it now ranks as one of
the most productive areas in the en-
tire country. Nearly 100000 peo-
pile, dependent mostly on agriculture,
live in the region. Where there was
but one banking institution in the
area in 188O-that at Helena, Ark
there now are more than 200 flourish
ing banks. Where there were no rail
roads whatever in the territory prior
to the '8Os, the mileage now is in ex-