Mississippi flood of 1927 VIDEO

Mississippi flood of 1927 MPEG4 73.6 MB Mississippi flood of 1927 MPEG2 Video 390.6 MB Mississippi flood of 1927. OGV 74.7 MB which is a free, open standard container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The OGV format is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia. animated gif, 18 frames 161.3 KB

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was one of the most destructive fl oods in the history of the United States. In the summer and fall of 1926, violent storms dumped ten times the yearly average rainfall into tributaries throughout the Mississippi River watershed. On April 16 a 1,200-foot length of levee collapsed near Greenville, Mississippi, breaking with a force double that of Niagara Falls. It fl ooded an area 50 miles wide and more than 100 miles long, killing 246 people in seven states and causing over $400 million in damage.

In response to the devastating fl ood of 1927, Congress passed the 1928 Flood Control Act authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct projects for the control of fl oods on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

Short silent film produced by the Signal Corps of the Mississippi flood of 1927.

Reel 1, flood waters rage through Illinois, carrying houses and debris. Kleinwood, La., is under water. Marooned families, their salvaged possessions, and livestock cling to levees. Sec. of Commerce Hoover meets Red Cross heads. Army troops load equipment on freight cars. Levees are reinforced at Baton Rouge. Coast Guard cutters and miscellaneous craft evacuate people and animals in La. Reel 2, Hoover and Sec. of War Davis inspect flooded areas at Vicksburg and along the River to Natchez. Refugees are inoculated, fed, and given shelter at an Army camp in Louisiana.

The material comes from a 3/4" U-matic video viewing copy made available at the National Archives facility in College Park, MD. The condition of the source material is relatively good for its age. Unfortunately, the transfer to video was badly done with lots of flicker and crooked perspective. Additionally, there are many video artifacts as a result of the age and wear of the video tape. High quality preservation 35mm film exists.

National Archives identifiers, ARC: 24699. NAIL: 111-H-1194

This movie is part of the collection: Short Format Films

This image or file is a work of an employee of the United States Federal Government, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain.

Generally speaking, works created by U.S. Government employees are not eligible for copyright protection in the United States. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office.

Sponsor: Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer.
Audio/Visual: silent, bw
Keywords: flood; mississippi river; disaster
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

TEXT RESOURCE: Unit 4: Mississippi River at Work (In PDF Format)