ABSTRACT
French and Spanish colonial administrations, weak and undersupported as they were, held plantation owners individually responsible for constructing and maintaining the levees fronting their riverine parcels. The new American administration generally continued this tradition of localism, which, incidentally, prevailed also in drainage, sewerage, potable water distribution, firefighting, and other services. In New Orleans, the City Council gradually gained control over the waterfront and, in 1810, set standards for levee construction. Levees of varying standards expanded upstream at a rapid pace throughout the antebellum era. Whereas late-colonial-era levees lined the river from English Turn up to the German Coast, by 1812 they extended up to Old River and by 1844 to Greenville, Mississippi. Sauve's Crevasse ranked as the city's worst flood for 156 years. It occurred in an era when the federal government reconsidered its role in overseeing lower Mississippi River flood control.
