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nw NC | The news of the flooding along the Mississippi and talk of levees failing or deliberately being breached , peaked my interest in the levee system. Here is a link to good information about it.
http://www.tulane.edu/~bfleury/envirobio/enviroweb/FloodControl.htm
Some quotes from it are ;
"One who knows the Mississippi will promptly aver...that ten thousand River Commissions, with the mines of the world at their back, cannot tame the lawless stream, cannot curb it or confine it, cannot say to it Go here or Go there, and make it obey; cannot save a shore that it has sentenced."
Mark Twain
Life on the Mississippi
And:
The unorganized levee system was finally turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers. The levees’ were designed to protect populated areas from potentially disastrous flooding and keep the Mississippi safely within its banks. However, not everyone agreed that levees were the best way to decrease flooding. In 1852, the federal government appropriated $50,000 in order to conduct studies on how to further eliminate the flooding problem. The first study was done by an engineer named Charles Ellet Jr., whose study produced some startling conclusions. His report to Congress attributed the increase of flooding in the Mississippi River Basin to four major developments, including:
"The extension of the levees along the borders of the Mississippi, and of its
tributaries and outlets, by means of which the water that was formerly allowed to
spread over many thousand square miles of low lands is becoming more and more
confined to the immediate channel of the river, and is therefore, compelled to rise
higher and flow faster, until, under the increased power of the current, it may have time
to excavate a wider and deeper trench to give vent to the increased volume which it
conveys."
Ellet also mentioned the effects of increased cultivation, manmade cutoffs/shortcuts, and the lengthening of the delta all of which will increase the probability and magnitude of floods. He concluded that the flooding problem would worsen with time as the Mississippi Basin becomes more settled. According to Ellet, “It is shown that each of these causes is likely to be progressive, and that the future floods throughout the length and breadth of the delta, and along the great streams tributary to the Mississippi, are destined to rise higher and higher, as society spreads over the upper States, as population adjacent to the river increases, and the inundated low lands appreciate in value”.
The words spoken by the engineer after his studies in the 1850's have rung true.
Makes one wonder if attempting to keep the river in its channel was/is wise.
Best wishes to those of you in harms way.
Edited by WJKEIGER 5/2/2011 15:40
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Mississippi Levee System --Interesting reading.
