The Mississippi River flooding Arkansas City in 1927.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States.
The flood began with extremely heavy rains in the central basin of the Mississippi River in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to capacity. On Christmas Day of 1926, the Cumberland River at Nashville exceeded 56.2 feet (17 m), a level that remains a record as of this writing.
Flooding overtopped the levees causing the Mounds Landing to break with more than double the water volume of Niagara Falls. The Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles . This water flooded an area 50 mi wide and more than 99 mi long. The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people in seven states.
The flood affected Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Arkansas was hardest hit, with 14% of its territory covered by floodwaters. By May 1927, the Mississippi River below Memphis, Tennessee, reached a width of 60 miles.
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 in Southern Victory[]
The Great Flood of 1927 was a destructive natural disaster that took place in both the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, although the C.S. took the brunt of the disaster. The Mississippi River overflowed its banks and inundated several hundred communities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. New Orleans was barely saved from flooding.
The ruling Whig Party proved incapable of dealing with the crisis, as intervening in such affairs ran counter to their philosophy of hands-off governing. The Freedom Party used that to their advantage, as its leader and front-runner, Jake Featherston, denounced the Whigs and told the Confederate people that he would've done everything in his power to help out in the disaster area. His party even held its national convention in New Orleans to underscore their resolve to change things. Featherston lost the election that November, but the Great Flood and the Whigs' lack of response to it hurt President Burton Mitchel's chances somewhat. Two years later, when the stock markets crashed in Richmond and New York, the Confederate people saw once again how the Whigs performed during disasters.
Conversely, the U.S. was not as badly impacted by the flood. The federal government took steps to limit the damage, a fact seized on by Jake Featherston in 1933.
