The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927

The Great Mississippi River Flood was raging back on April 16, 1927. Tremendous rains all over the Mississippi River Valley during the preceding autumn and winter sent floodwaters raging southward over a wide area.

On this date, the supposedly inpregnable government levee at Dorena, Missouri collapsed. The surge of floodwater wass pushing downriver toward the Mississippi Delta, bursting more levees as it went. The news flashed like a shockwave to New Orleans, where the Crescent City residents remembered the 1922 flood that had nearly breached their levees.

All along the river, worried residents feared sabotage to their levees. They knew that a break across the River would relive pressure on their side and possibly save their towns, so the threat of sabotage was very real. Armed men patrolled their levees to prevent such activities.

In Greenville, Mississippi, 30,000 men, including convicts and African-American laborers were working frantically to raise the height of the levees in their area. Eventually the workers would be working at gunpoint as the situation became more desperate.
Hundreds of workers died in the crevasse that opened up at Mounds Landing, north of Greenville and water churning brown water would cover the Mississippi Delta.

Category: Uncategorized