ABSTRACT
One of the fundamental impacts of too much water out of place is flooding. A classic case in the United States was the Mississippi River flood of 1927, the attempted control measures leading up to it, and its repercussions with a focus on the State of Louisiana and the commitment to a “levees-only” approach to flood control. Efforts to control the Mississippi River in Louisiana began in the eighteenth century. The French built the first levees on the Mississippi in 1717 to protect Louisiana's major city, New Orleans. In 1722, construction began on a four-foot earthen levee on top of the natural levee in the Crescent City. The US Territory of Louisiana passed its first levee law in 1807, giving authority for maintaining levees to the parishes, which were responsible for holding rural landowners accountable for levee building and maintenance.
