Winning Against Water

Enthusiastic about the success of huge, man-made walls in holding back nature's temperamental floods, an Army Corps of Engineers official said of the flood-control system on the Mississippi River: "It's the greatest invention since women." Though his statement was exaggerated, his pride was justified. In the third worst flood of the century, federally financed dams, levees and spillways last week met severe tests, regulated the swelling river and in seven Mississippi Valley states* kept damage to a relatively low $200 million.

Still, the river's rising waters took their toll. By week's end the flood had claimed 20 lives, routed 25,000 people from their homes and swamped 7,300,000 acres of rich farm land. At least 10% of this year's cotton crop and some of the soybean harvest were threatened. Upriver, as waters receded and mopping up began, farmers around West Alton, Mo., found nearly 10,000 acres of crops covered with silt and debris. But for the most part, the upper Mississippi was secure.

Downriver, the damage was greater. In Mississippi, the hardest-hit state, another two inches of rain fell on the Yazoo River Basin, making a total of 51 inches in the past six months. The soaked earth could hold no more; at Vicksburg, where the Yazoo River meets the Mississippi, the water reached 7.4 feet above flood stage, the highest in 36 years. Farm land and equipment in the surrounding Delta lay under eight feet of water in some places, making the recovery and repair of equipment almost impossible on many small farms. Trembling cattle huddled on islands of high ground, surrounded by chocolate-colored waters. In all, Mississippi suffered $75 million in damages.

Louisiana fared better, thanks largely to the effectiveness of levees and spillways. Twenty-five miles north of New Orleans, officials opened the Bonnet Carre spillway for the first time since 1950, siphoning off 250,000 cu. ft. of water per second into nearby Lake Pontchartrain. Beyond that, water-wise Louisianians did what they have always done during flood season: watched the river and trusted the levee walls.

Many people living along the high, tempestuous Great Lakes were not so fortunate. There is a much lower, less extensive system of water walls along the lakes than along the Mississippi. Heavy rains in the past three years have made the lakes rise rapidly; Lake Erie is 14 inches higher than a year ago, and Lake Michigan is twelve inches higher. Last week 48-m.p.h. winds sent eight-foot waves crashing over the shores of Lake Erie in Toledo and in Monroe County, Mich. Water surged over five square miles inland, and damage along the shore line reached an estimated $32 million. Lake Michigan's 20-foot waves battered the lake shore for 40 miles, from Chicago northward to Zion. Flooding in Green Bay, Wis., forced 800 to evacuate.

"I don't like to give up," said one Toledo resident after his home absorbed its second soaking in six months. "It may be a losing battle, but I can't walk away from my investment here." Such hardiness will help in the future. The lakes will not peak until June, and they are expected to remain high for at least another two years.

* Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

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