Evening star., 1922-04-19
Works of Man Pitted in Vain
Against Mississippi's Floods

citizens breathed easier, for the news
Of added ruin meant that the Missis-
slppl was performing it's norman
junction again and spreading over the
lowlands, its high level upstream meal
time falling.
Hardly had the food subsided than
the rush to Washington began.
scores of valley towns sent their
delegations. The ievee race began
anew. New destruction was wrought
the next year. 1913. and what little
opposition had been encountered in
Congress was overcome with these
fresh tales of destruction. Then fol-
lowed ten years of steady flood pre-
vcntion and levee building in the val
ley. 1t had held the Mississippi in
leash, although threatened in 1913,
when the ice again came. However,
lack of heavy spring rains helped the
river carry off the great burden.
Conditions were ideal for Hood
this spring. The winter was heavy.
The Mississippi was choked with ice
from st. Louis north; it's tributary,
the Missouri river, likewise. Float
ing ice has been running south from
81. Louis to Memphis since January
Then spring rains came. A great
torrent poured into the Ohio from the
Allegheny and the Monongahela; the
Wabash aided, and heavy rains from
the watersheds of the Tennessee and
-
bankful at its mouth. The mississippi
can carry off an Ohio bankful under
normal conditions. but this time the
yellow torrent was met by a darker
rush of waters and ice from the great
northern Mississippi and Missouri
valleys.
Many schemes for meeting this
great problem on the Mississippi
have been presented. but the leVee
building, as affording immediate pro-
lection, has had to go on until en-
gineers are asking Where will 1t
end?" 1t has even been suggested
that the beds of the Mississippi and
Ohio valleys in the leYee building
race are gradually filing up, and
some of the levee builders are even
predicting time when the great
levees VIII hold the course OF the
stream above the level Of the lands.
The lcvecs in most instances are OF
earthen construction, except those
surrounding the cities. That at cairo
on the Ohio side is of reinforced con-
crete based upon interlocking steel
piling driven far into the ground, ana
estimated to hold out a G0-foot stage
Of water.
The nine foot channel project of
the War department, proNiulns loi
the building Of a great system OF
dams and locks up the Ohio from its
mouth to Pittsburgh. primarily 10
establish year-round navigation, IL
was believed would aid the Hood STU
alton. for hundreds of millions OF
gallons Of water could be stored IN
the locks and discharged gradually.
This scheme, however. has never been
completed, although Congress has
appropriated for many of the locks,
and some have been actually con-
Structed.
Lumbermen have come forward with
the suggestion that clearing the
rivers shores of timber. which once
absorbed much of the water or de-
layed it on its rush to the river, is
really the cause of the great floods.
but they do not seem to have taken
any steps to avoid this.
Wise old planters. some of whom
have seen their homes inundated or
swept away dozen times by the
river. shake their heads and say:
1T is ds natural tor the Mississippi
to overflow it's banks each spring as
it was for the Nile in biblical days.
and no man made levees will hold
its waters back.
And the mad levee buildings race
goes on in the valley for a thousand
miles