FLOODS IN AMERICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15920, 4 May 1912, Page 11

FLOODS IN AMERICA.

THE MISSISSIPPI. RISING. GREAT DESTRUCTION IMPEND*ING. United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. VANCOUVER, May 2. The levees guarding the towns alonft the banks of the Mississippi have been broken by the river, which is rising rapidly, and the destruction of farms and the flooding of lowlying areas of the towns are certain. Relief boats arc out, as many persons are missing.' ■■•;•■ THE MISSISSIPPI DANGER. i FLOODS COME IN SPRING. The valley of the Mississippi is belovl high flood level for a distance of probably 600 miles, from a point near Cape , Girardeau, forty-five miles above Cairo, to the Gulf of Mexico. The alluvial valley here has a width varying from twenty to eighty miles and an area of 29,790 or so miles. Throughout its course the river has ,to be kept in check by embankments. These works are called levees. They were undertaken first by the French settlers, and have been gradually extended until now they are fully 1590 miles in length. They do ■ not afford complete protection from in- ■ uudations, however, for they are not quite continuous, and they are not always strong enough to resist the pressure of high floods, which, at Vicksburg for instance, may rise even 60ft above the lowest stage of the river. Moreover, the improved, cultivation of the valley, with the accompanying improvement in the drainage and of the quart, i tity of water coming into ihe channel t has tended to increase the height of the'. ! floods. Breaches, or crevasses, as they - are termed, resulting from the erosion of the levees or from structural weakness, produce sudden rushes of flood waters, which are far more dangerous and . damaging than gradual inunda' tions, and as the banks are being steadily built up the floods become more and • more serious in-.the low lands away from the river.. The levees are breached almost every spring, and exceptional, floods occur about every ten years. There is thus a constant struggle be« tween man and nature, for the floods undermine {he banks, break down the levees or cause unexpected changes' ir the river's course, particularly at the bends, where the protective works are necessarily concave. New Orleans itself is below the flood level of the Mississippi, and has to be protected by costly j works. r ' * - ' ■■ :

THE MISSOURI WANTS ITS WAY: The Mississippi's great tributary, the Missouri, is also liable to spring floods. " The Missouri is credited with more meanness, treachery and underhandedness than any other river in the United States," wrote- a correspondent some time ago, " and no doubt it deserves its reputation. But those who malign it. forget that it has not had-many civilising influences, that it is a savage and goes wild out of sheer hatred of restraints. You can riprap, willow mat and any other engineering trick that you please and Old Muddy will beat you out. No one can find any complaintever having been made against it when the Indians lived along its bank; the. Missouri and they got on well together, for they understood each other. But it is said with some authority that the first white man who put up a shanty on its banks floated away on the roof before morning and laid the foundation for all the maledictions that have been launched at the river ever since. Then, too, began the struggle between white ■man and river in which there has been no truce.

' "In the struggle between man and river a number of fine towns have fallen and others have been so switched about as to scarcely know themselves. . A community between Kansas City and the lowa line that had for years rejoic ed that in its modast rural manner ii had enjoyed the advantages of Missouri local option was switched over by the rascally river to Mr Stubbs's State "and landed low and dry. In exchange for this deviltry the river gave one o! Kansas's original prohibitiqn villages and exposed a severely temperate people to all the dangers of the demoE Rum.

"Two towns, onoe rivals for the_ honour of being the metropolis of central Missouri, are be- •" neath the river. They are old Franklin, in Howard county, and Nashville, in Boone. They were shipping points of importance for tho reason that each controlled and did a thriving business. With the decline of river traffic the towns began to dwindle and ~'•; the Missouri save 3 them from lingering existence after their glory had depart- | ed by "charitably swallowing them, *•• that to-day not even a fallen roof or .•: crumbling chimney marks the spot* where hundreds of souls lived and hoped for a great municipality. "Tho Missouri- has always beer partial to Kansas City in flood time. ! It is the largest town on its course, and nerhaps it thinks that a people who had the energy to build tro a great municipality among such hills and rocks had ' enough of fight in them to make a shin- • ing mark. It never exactly liked th« lackadaisical way in which Omaha and St Joseph combated it, there wasn't ; enough of vim in the fight. It had | often tried to get into Kansas City, but $| never got much further than tho west bottoms, and then its water would girt out and it had to retire. But at the time of tho great flood in the early part ;• of this century—people in Kansas City ," ;: .: don't refer to this incident in their his- M tory any more than is absolutely heces- •' : sary, rust tho same as Wichita doesn't talk about the great boom or San Francisco of_ the earthquake—tho Missouri ffj Lad its innings*'*