The misery was even worse in 1937, the first time levee was breached (Missouri )

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_9101b083-de7a-5009-ad99-9b0409396a05.html

The misery was even worse in 1937, the first time levee was breached

BY TIM O'NEIL toneil@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8132 STLtoday.com | Posted: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 12:05 am | (2)
Mississippi River flooding at Cairo, 1937

ASSOCIATED PRESS Jan 30, 1937 --- "Ohio (River) Flood Level Far Above Cairo Streets" --- Water is within three feet of top of levee protecting Illinois city as expected crest of 62 feet is awaited.


Associated Press

After engineers blew up the Birds Point levee in 1937, the Ohio River fell 1 foot over three days at Cairo, Ill. It rebounded 2 feet before cresting one cold, miserable week later. But Cairo's concrete flood wall and soggy levees held by 6 inches against the Ohio's crest on Feb. 3, 1937. It wouldn't get that high again until Monday, when the river topped its 1937 mark by 2 feet before the Army Corps of Engineers detonated the Birds Point levee the second time.

By Tuesday evening, the Ohio at Cairo had fallen almost 2 feet.

The broken levee is on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River, barely five miles south of Cairo. Between them is the confluence of the two great rivers. Levees and flood walls are higher than they were 74 years ago. As in 1937, many Missourians resent the winner-loser strategy, intended to spare Cairo and other river towns by letting the river surge across 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland. In 1937, it pitted 5,000 Missourians against Cairo's 13,000 residents. This time, barely 300 households are on the New Madrid Floodway. Cairo is down to 2,800 souls. But the result is the same — the river washes over Missouri farmland, and Cairo stays dry.

The idea dates to 1927, when a massive flood spread the Mississippi across 70 miles of land near Vicksburg, Miss. The New Madrid Floodway, designed to make more room for the river, cost $21 million for a second row of set-back levees and easements from landowners. (Little money reached the residents, most of them sharecroppers who farmed with mules.) For misery, the 1937 flood was much worse, and deadly. The cause was the same — waves of rainstorms pounding across southern Missouri, Arkansas and the Ohio Valley. In 1937, parts of Kentucky had 2 feet of rain in barely a week. With it came sleet, snow and temperatures falling into the teens.

The Ohio flooded wide areas of Cincinnati, and Louisville and Paducah, Ky. Backwater reached Churchill Downs, almost 4 miles from the river in Louisville. Downtown buildings were surrounded by water and capped with snow. In Missouri, displaced families headed to shelters outside the floodway. There were reports of angry farmers with guns heading for Birds Point, but unmolested soldiers blasted the levee on Jan. 25, 1937. At least three people drowned fleeing the resulting deluge. Near New Madrid, Mo., a young woman and her newborn were found frozen to death on a rooftop surrounded by water.

snip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Shawneetown,_Illinois

cairo should be moved to higher ground

There are so few people even living there, it should be considered.

I bet they would be happy to move elsewhere, if they could go en masse.

It can;t be a picnic living there:(


The pics@
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25229906@N00/3725311489/in/set-72157619948379073/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/berlyjen/3372906030/#/photos/berlyjen/3366691996/in/set-72157615412847964/lightbox/

are heartbreaking

that was flooded when the levee was blown. To top that off the black residents weren't compensated for their losses.

there was probably no compensation for them back then..