Flooding in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Actually, the entire Mississippi Valley. A look at the National Weather Service's map of current weather warnings is amazing. At any rate, the flooding is enough of a concern to metro New Orleans that the Bonnet Carre Floodway near New Orleanswill be opened tomorrow.

Visible from Satellite

History shows that flooding in this fairly poor part of the nation has been devastating.

Several reports on the terrible situation in the refugee camps, including one by the Colored Advisory Commission by Robert Russa Moton, were kept out of the media at the request of Herbert Hoover, with the promise of further reforms for blacks after the presidential election. When he failed to keep the promise, Moton and other influential African-Americans helped to shift the allegiance of Black Americans from the Republican party to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats.

Following the Great Flood of 1927, the Army Corps of Engineers was again charged with taming the Mississippi River. Under the Flood Control Act of 1928, the world's longest system of levees was built. Floodways that diverted excessive flow from the Mississippi River were constructed.[1]

The aftermath of the flood was one factor in the Great Migration of African-Americans to northern cities. Previously, the move from the rural South to the Northern cities had virtually stopped. As a result of displacement lasting up to six months, millions of Southern blacks moved to the big cities of the North, particularly Chicago.

The flood propelled Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who was in charge of flood relief operations, into the national spotlight and set the stage for his election to the Presidency. It also helped Huey Long be elected Louisiana Governor in 1928.

The flood had the unlikely effect of contributing to both the election of Herbert Hoover as President, and his defeat four years later. He was much lauded for his masterful handling of the refugee camps, but later concerns over the treatment of blacks in those camps caused him to make promises to the African-American community which he later broke, losing the black vote in his re-election campaign.

Granted this flood will not be as bad as that one. 1926 was exceptionally wet in the Southeast and Midwest, while we all know that it was (and more or less still is) bone dry there now. However an exceptional amount of rain has fallen in this part of the country recently, and all that snow that fell in the Upper Midwest (indeed, it's still falling, the winter that won't end!) has to melt at some point, that is if winter decides its going to end.

Towns such as Vicksburg and Natchez have been hit.

Just remember to be ready to help the people of the lower Mississippi valley and all those affected by this ongoing flood event.