Rising Tide,
John Barry
"The Valley of the Mississippi River stretches north
into Canada and south in to the Gulf of Mexico, east from New York and North
Carolina and west to Idaho and New Mexico.
It is a valley 20% larger than that of China's Yellow River, double that
of Africa's Nile and India's Ganges, 15 times that of Europe's Rhine. Within it lies 41% of the continental United
States, including 31 states."
"...the Mississippi was the only river in the world
that had "mud lumps". Likely
caused by the extreme weight of the new sediment settling on the bottom, they
could suddenly rise enough to lift a ship as it passed, and they usually had a
volcano like cone spewing gasses and liquid mud. Humphreys' described them as 'masses of tough
clay, varying in size from mere protuberances looking like logs sticking out of
the water to islands several acres in extent.
They attain height from three to ten feet about the Gulf. salt springs are found upon them, which emit
inflammable gas."
"There is no sight like the rising Mississippi. One
cannot look at it without awe, or watch it rise and press against the levees
without fear. It grows darker, angrier, dirtier eddies and whirlpools erupt on
its surface; it thickens with trees, rooftops, the occasional body of a mule.
Its currents roil more, flow swifter, pummel the banks harder."
At the Peak of the great Mississippi River flood of 1993,
the river in Iowa carried 435,000 cubic feet of water a second; at St. Louis
after the Missouri River added its waters, it carried 1 million cfs. It was enough water to devastate the Midwest
and make headlines across the world.
In 1927...the
Mississippi River would be carrying in excess of 3 million cfs.
With facts like this, the dates of laws and regulations, the
sorting of the geographic data and the organizing of stories, John Barry does a
masterful presentation of the Mississippi using the flood of 1927 to present us
with a picture of the culture, the conflicts, the issues, and the river.
We see a flood that lasts over six months, one that shows
the racial separation that caused the African Americans to suffer indignity and
death no matter how strong their efforts and contributions. It is a look at engineering and conflicts
between engineers who were more interested in winning their personal battles
than they were finding the right solutions.
We learn about the Percy family in Greenville, MS and they
were in the epicenter of the Delta with the senior Percy fighting the clan,
trying to find the right way to support the “negro” who he recognized as vital
to the success of the region, holding off the Klu Klux Klan which has to rank
as one of the most awful and powerful movements in this nation. Yet he could not hold off the flood and he
could not undo the damage that his son does when in charge of the flood
situation.
We find out about the power structure of New Orleans with
clubs and krewes controlling the power and their use of that power to flood and
nearly destroy two areas of rural settlement in order to save the city. But we also learn that had they waited New
Orleans would not have been destroyed.
Then to compound the damage that their egotistical works did – they refused
to meet their obligations to the victims of their human caused flooding – even though
they had promised to “take care” of the people.
Then there is Hoover who gets to be in charge of the flood
for the nation and he sees this as a platform for the presidency. And it was.
So he uses and throws away the support of the African American leaders
and their constituency. He makes promises
that he knows he will not keep after the election and he sweeps in to office
and, of course, the great depression.
His rank as a bad president is preceded by behavior that puts a
spotlight on his lack of integrity.
It is a story of engineering and politics, of people who are
put back in to slavery and some of the most amazing statistics that you will
ever read. To understand this flood is
beyond anyone, but this book is a great place to start. Read
it for the good writing and the fascinating insight, but do not read it to feel
good about the human character.
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