Rising Tide by John Barry - thoughts from MS/LA/AR folks?

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One Man versus the Mississippi River:
How the Caernarvon Crevasse Changed Flood Policy in America

There has been much scholarly research dedicated to the Great Flood of 1927, but surprisingly little has been focused on the cutting of the levee below New Orleans. The few that have focused their efforts on the cutting of the levee have lent their attention on the aftermath of the flood, the pitiful payout of reparations the residents of Saint Bernard and Plaquemines Parish received, or the New Orleans wealthy who are painted as greedy profiteers. Instead the spotlight should be on the poor policy and planning that eventually forced the hand of New Orleans to destroy the levee along with the life’s work so many residents of the affected parishes. If anyone stands out above the rest in the story of the flood, it is J. D. Kemper who gave report after report warning of impending disaster due to the levee system. The New Orleans men that made the decision were not the demons that John Barry, author of Rising Tide, made them out to be. Their hand was forced by years of bad policy made by men drunk on their own egos.

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Imagine standing on top of a levee looking out over the father of waters, the Mississippi River, about twelve miles down from New Orleans. The sun is high in the sky; the water is rushing past your feet. It is a picturesque spring day in Saint Bernard Parish. There is a pleasant breeze that cools the face from the warm sunlight. Out on the river are the most magnificent yachts the city of New Orleans had to offer. Above is the constant buzz of airplanes, probably photographers from the New York Times and the Associated Press. A long line of cars that look like Ford Model T’s are lining the dirt road coming as far as the eye can see going back towards New Orleans. Going up the road in the opposite direction towards Chalmette and New Orleans are jalopies packed full with a lifetime of belongings, memories, and adolescent boys hanging from the windows. A beat up farm truck passes and you hear a mother crying. Her husband, wearing nothing but overalls and a straw hat, has a stern but defeated look on his worn face.

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Immediately after, one of the Model T’s parks on the levee and a family gets out. The father of this family is well dressed, wearing a seersucker suit and an expensive boater hat made from straw. He puts his official pass that was given to him to gain access to this spectacle, which apparently has become the entertainment event of the year, in his inside jacket pocket. The children run out of the car, a young girl in a sundress and a boy of about eight wearing a suit with high socks and a newsboy cap. Both are laughing, enjoying the beautiful day. Their mother yells at them to stay close and to not go near the water.

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The National Guard has been patrolling the levee for a couple of weeks. Even now they can be seen across the river ensuring that land owners from St. Bernard or Plaquemines Parish don’t try to blow the levee on the west bank of the river. It would be a desperate move, but livelihoods are at stake. Before the National Guard was here, locals were patrolling the levees armed with whatever firearms they had to protect their levees from people that lived further down river who desperately needed relief for their levees as well.

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A crowd gathers around while downriver approximately a half mile, explosives have been laid to destroy the levee. A seaplane flies overhead as someone says that the time is just past 2:30. The paper said it would happen at noon. Out on the river a log floats by with a rabbit riding on top. That is when you look up and hear the first of 1,500 pounds of dynamite blast sending a portion of the levee sky high. The women gasp, the men point. This truly is a high society event that you are witnessing. Surrounded by the upper crust of New Orleans society, all here to witness what was guaranteed to be a spectacle. When the dust settles there is but a small hole in the levee. A crevasse that was supposed to be over 1,000 feet in length is only a ten foot by six foot hole. Disappointed, the shakers and movers retreat to their vehicles to make the twelve mile trek back to the city.

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The amount of dynamite the plan had originally called for to create the crevasse was soon exhausted. It would end up taking 39 tons of dynamite over the next ten days to cut the hole in the levee that had been planned: a hole that was to save the city of New Orleans, a hole that would destroy the livelihoods of thousands of farming families, a hole that with proper planning and sound policy could have been avoided, a hole that was deemed unnecessary the very next day.

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