How many people died during the flood of 1927?
More than 23,000 square miles (60,000 square km) of land was submerged, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and some 250 people died. After several months of heavy rain caused the Mississippi River to swell to unprecedented levels, the first levee broke on April 16, along the Illinois shore.
What areas were flooded by the great flood of 1927?
Flooding peaked in the Lower Mississippi River near Mound Landing, Mississippi, and Arkansas City, Arkansas, and broke levees along the river in at least 145 places. The water flooded more than 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) of land, and left more than 700,000 people homeless.
What caused the great flood of 1927 to be so devastating?
The Greatest Flood in History. In the winter of 1926-27 the rains were so heavy that on the tributaries of the Mississippi the water had overflowed the banks, causing floods to the west in Oklahoma and Kansas, to the east in Illinois and Kentucky.
What happened in the flood of 1927?
The flood inundated 16 million acres of land, displacing nearly 640,000 people in states from Illinois to Louisiana. In Vicksburg, Mississippi, the river swelled to 80 miles wide . The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 will go down in history as one of America’s greatest peacetime disasters.
What states were affected by the flood of 1927?
The Great Flood of 1927 left 8 states– Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana– devastated. An estimated total of 20,000 square miles of land were flooded. 226 Americans were killed, and more than 750,000 were forced to leave their homes (Heersink 262).
When did the flood of 1927 end?
The flood started in the summer of 1926 with exceptionally heavy rains in the Mississippi basin but did not peak until April the following year. The waters did not subside until August 1927.
What was an economic effect of the Great Flood of 1927?
A repeat of the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood, the largest flood disaster in U.S. history, could cost up to $160 billion in economic damages if it were to recur today, according to Risk Management Solutions, a Newark, Calif. -based catastrophe risk analysis company.
How many people died in the Arkansas flood of 1927?
In Arkansas, almost 100 people died, more than any state except Mississippi. In monetary terms, the losses in Arkansas (totaling over $1 million in 1927 dollars for relief and recovery) surpassed any other affected state. The Flood of 1927 had its origins both in nature and in man.
What was the weather like in Arkansas in 1927?
The September 1927 National Geographic said that the streets of Arkansas City (Desha County) were dry and dusty at noon, but by 2:00 p.m., “mules were drowning on Main Street faster than people could unhitch them from wagons.” Water poured in and had nowhere to go. Homes and stores stood for months in six to thirty feet of murky water.
What was the cause of the Mississippi Flood in 1927?
Even nature seemed to be cooperating, as the summer of 1926 brought rain instead of drought. The spring of 1927, however, saw warm weather and early snow melts in Canada, causing the upper Mississippi to swell. Rain fell in the upper Midwest, sending its full rivers gushing into the already swollen Mississippi.
Who was president at the time of the 1927 flood?
In Washington DC, the federal response under President Calvin Coolidge to the misery in the flooded South was simple: not one dollar of federal money went in direct aid to the flood victims. The Flood of 1927 brought Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover into the spotlight as Coolidge’s appointee to chair local and voluntary relief operations]