NA TURE 



[November 3, 1904 



FLOODS IN THE MISSISSIPPI. 



WJE have on previous occasions directed attention 

 »• to tiie reports issued by the Department of 

 Agriculture of the United States, and to the valuable 

 information they afford to the officers engaged in the 

 different departments. We have now been favoured 

 with a copy of a report issued by the Weather Bureau 



•on the floods in the Mississippi watershed in the spring 

 of 1903,' which gives an interesting and detailed 

 account of the most disastrous floods in this district of 

 which there is any record. 



These floods are described as marking a new epoch 

 in the economic history of the country. When previous 

 floods occurred they ran harmlessly over unbroken 

 forests, and bottoms tenanted only 

 by the beasts of the field, except 

 •over a limited area where there 

 were small farms tenanted by 

 French colonists. The floods of 

 1903 descended upon fertile and 

 highly cultivated fields, and upon 

 rich valleys filled to overflowing 

 with vast industries devoted with 

 never ceasing energy to the fulfil- 

 ment of the insatiable demands of 

 commerce. The resulting ruin and 

 desolation were beyond descrip- 

 tion. .\long the lower Mississippi 

 6820 square miles of country were 

 inundated. In Kansas City five 

 square miles of territory were over- 

 flowed ; large portions of the manu- 

 facturing towns of Venice and 

 Madisoii were flooded to a con- 

 siderable depth ; more than 3000 

 square miles of territory, one-half of 

 which was under cultivation, were 

 overflowed and the crops ruined. 



The towns of Armourdale, .■\rgentine, and Harlem 

 were covered from 8 feet to 12 feet with water, and had 

 to be abandoned. Twenty thousand people in this 

 district were made homeless. .All public utilities were 

 put out of service ; sixteen out of seventeen bridges 

 over the river Kaw were washed away. The 



By 



.Missouri and Kansas remained no longer rivers, but 

 became merged into an inland sea. When the flood 

 subsided there was revealed a condition of general ruin 

 and desolation. Holes had been gouged in the streets 

 some 30 feet deep ; railroad tracks had been torn to 

 pieces ; an oil tank, 50 feet in diameter and 30 feet high, 

 made of iron plates, had been torn from its foundations 

 and tossed about like a frail shanty; freight cars 

 had been broken up and carried 

 away down the river ; heavy loco- 

 motive engines had been rolled 

 over and were discovered lying in 

 mud banks ; and mud from 2 feet 

 to 4 feet deep covered everything. 

 .\n approximate estimate of the loss 

 in this district was put at 35 million 

 pounds. In the vicinity of Kansas 

 City the losses were placed at up- 

 wards of three million pounds, 

 while the value of the bridges 

 destroyed was more than 150,000/. 

 In previous floods the losses have 

 fallen principally on the agri- 

 cultural districts, but this time the 

 loss to the farmers was less than 

 one-third of the total, and about the 

 same proportion was borne by the 

 railroads. 



But great as the losses were, they 

 would have been far greater but 

 for the property saved owing to 

 timely warnings issued by the 

 Weather Bureau. Owing to the 

 careful records kept of previous 

 floods the department was enabled 

 to forecast the time at which the 

 flow would reach the various towns situated on the 

 river, and the height to which it would probably rise, 

 and so could send out timely warnings. In tlie lower 

 district alone the value of the property saved by re- 

 moval to places of safety was estimated at 5 million 

 pounds. The forecasts as to the probable height of 

 the flood were issued in the higher districts at least 



1 " The Floods of the Spring of foo^ in Ih 

 i.e. Frankenfeld. (Washington; Weathe: 



NO. 1827, VOL 71] 



iippi Watershed. 

 . ■904-) 



-Repairing levee at Lagrange, M 



four days in advance, and in the lower part, at New 

 Orleans, twenty-eight days in advance. By these 

 warnings the people were kept well informed of what 

 they might expect in the way of high water. The 

 work of the River and Flood Service in furnishing 

 information regarding this flood was complete and 

 satisfact'Orv. By the use of the Post Office, telegraph 

 and telephone lines, and the daily Press, and with the 



