ALLUVIAL BASIN OF THE MISSISSIPPI 255 



ville and more than one half of that city was under water. Forces 

 were set to work building a protection levee in the city and moving 

 goods to a place of safety. As far as can be ascertained no lives were 

 lost. Little or no loss in crops was sustained, as the flood came before 

 the planting and the area was largely drained before that season arrived. 

 The losses were mainly in live stock, fences and buildings. In contrast 

 with the security so easily shown, in the reports of the commission, to 

 be the experience of the inhabitants of the Yazoo Basin, the engineers 

 in charge of the levees seem to congratulate themselves that no other 

 crevasses occurred, for many weak places developed that required the 

 utmost care and attention to hold intact. They state as their ex- 

 pectation that crevasses are liable to occur at any high-water season 

 and at any point in the system or ' until all levees are brought up 

 to a sufficient section to withstand the long-continued strain due to the 

 water remaining for weeks near the top.' Although the statement 

 quoted, on the face of it, rather begs the question, we are at liberty 

 to infer therefrom that too much confidence had better not be held 

 in the protective value of much of the present line. So near to dis- 

 aster do the floods approach oftentimes, that every element which the 

 engineers can control is considered a necessary ally in cooperation for 

 the protection of the levees. During the 1903 flood, the river boats 

 were required to run at a reduced speed along a portion of this basin 

 front. So full was the river and the waters stood so near the top of 

 the levee that it was not considered wise to subject the embankment 

 to the wash of passing steamers. It may be stated in this connection 

 that a storm, arising as the water is nearing the crest of the levees, 

 can not be so summarily dealt with; and it often causes a day or two 

 of apprehension, if indeed the beating waves do not tear their way 

 through the structure. 



A harsher note is sounded by an observer of the Weather Bureau 3 

 than is struck in the reports of the commission. There were favorable 

 and mitigating circumstances which decreased the volume of the 1903 

 flood. Two factors materially modified the destructive feature of the 

 flood; one of these was an early occurrence and the other a shorter 

 duration. Both these factors spring from the same cause. Not- 

 withstanding these compensating qualities this writer reports that the 

 water during a period of two weeks was higher at Greenville and Ar- 

 kansas City than it had ever before been known to be. The destructive 

 work of the flood is summed up as follows : Some loss of stock in the 

 basin; 115 houses evacuated in Greenville; 200 acres of fine farming 

 land badly washed and left covered with sand; suspension of traffic 

 on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Bailroad from March 27 to April 

 17, and on the Biverside Division from March 27 to May 7; 1,460 



3 Bull. M, ' The Floods of the Spring of 1903 in the Mississippi Watershed,' 

 H. C. Frankenficld. 



