Aftermath

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history inundated seven states, displaced more than half a million people for months, and caused about $1 billion dollars in property damages. And like many national emergencies it exposed a stark question that the country still struggles to answer - what is the political calculus used to decide who bears the ultimate responsibility in a crisis, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable? This week, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and what came after.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It started raining in August 1926 and it didn't really stop.
0:17.4	Henry Waring Ball had recorded in his diary.
0:21.6	It had rained heavily for months.
0:23.8	March 8th, quote, pouring rain almost constantly for 24 hours.
0:28.0	March 9th, quote, rain almost all night.
0:31.0	March 12th, quote, I don't believe I ever saw so much rain.
0:35.0	March 19th, quote, rain all day.
0:43.0	March 20th, quote, still raining hard tonight.
0:46.0	March 21st, quite cold, torn of rain last night.
0:51.0	March 26th, bad cold rain.
0:54.0	March 27th, March 29th, still cold and showering.
0:57.0	Very dark and rainy.
1:00.0	March 30th, too dark and rainy to do anything.
1:05.0	April 1st, violent storm almost all night.
1:08.0	April 5th, quote, much rain tonight.
1:11.0	April 6th, quote, rain last night, of course.
1:21.0	In the first five months of 1927, there were five storms each one of which was bigger than
1:29.0	any single storm in the preceding 10 years.
1:35.0	If you lived near the river and you had a brain you knew perfectly well, you were facing a serious threat.
1:48.0	It is raining as usual.
1:51.0	On April 21st, you have hundreds of men working at a weak spot in the levy of piling sandbags, piling sandbags,
2:01.0	piling sandbags, water started to come over.
	...

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