Divine Providence: the 2011 Flood in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln US Army Corps of Engineers U.S. Department of Defense 2012 Divine Providence: The 2011 Flood in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project Charles A. Camillo Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usarmyceomaha Camillo, Charles A., "Divine Providence: The 2011 Flood in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project" (2012). US Army Corps of Engineers. 142. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usarmyceomaha/142 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the U.S. Department of Defense at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in US Army Corps of Engineers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. DDIVINEIVINE PPROVIDENCEROVIDENCE DDIVINEIVINE PPROVIDENCEROVIDENCE The 2011 Flood in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project by Charles A. Camillo Foreword by George C. Grugett Executive Vice-President Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association Postscript by T. Stephen Gambrell Executive Director Mississippi River Commission Mississippi River Commission Vicksburg, Mississippi 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Camillo, Charles A. Divine providence : the 2011 fl ood in the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project / by Charles A. Camillo ; with foreword by George C. Grugett and postscript by T. Stephen Gambrell. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Flood control—Mississippi River Valley—History—21st century. 2. Floods—Mississippi River Valley—History—21st century. 3. Mississippi River Valley—Environmental conditions. 4. Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (U.S.)—History. 5. Flood control—Mississippi River Valley—History. 6. Mississippi River—Navigation—History. I. United States. Mississippi River Commission. II. Title. TC425.M6C36 2012 363.34’930977090512--dc23 2012006073 DDIVINEIVINE PPROVIDENCEROVIDENCE Contents Foreword George C. Grugett, Executive Vice-President, Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association page v Preface page vii Prologue The Mississippi River and Tributaries Project page 1 Chapter One General Jadwin’s Floodway: Historical Background of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway page 21 Chapter Two Trouble at the Confl uence: The 2011 Activation of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway page 59 Chapter Three Fergie Fixes the River: Improving the Flood-Carrying Capacity of the River page 125 Divine Providence Chapter Four The River Wants Out: The 2011 Flood in the Heart of the MR&T Project page 163 Chapter Five Through the Spout to the Gulf: The 2011 Flood in the New Orleans District page 217 Postscript T. Stephen Gambrell, Executive Director, Mississippi River Commission page 275 Select Bibliography page 283 Notes page 289 iv Foreword In my many years of experience on the magnifi cent lower Missis- sippi River I have read many articles, books, and periodicals concern- ing the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. I am certain that the major change I have discerned through all this reading is that, for some reason that I have never really examined, modern-day historians such as Charles Camillo have found the secret of making their writings of historical events a lot more “readable” than those experts of years past. I am certain that the readers of this account of the Great Flood of 2011 will agree with that personal assessment. Mr. Camillo was there on the spot, if you will, during those periods of anguish when the Mississippi River Commission made the diffi cult decisions that allowed this fl ood of record to fl ow to the Gulf of Mexico without the loss of a single life and with not one acre of land fl ooded that was not supposed to be fl ooded. Those gut-wrenching moments are captured in this book in such a manner that you do not have to be a water resources engineer to feel the tension and the need for the correct decision to be made at the proper time. What happened during the Great Flood of 2011 did not happen because of some overnight miracle. It happened because of the fore- sight of the people that formed a triad more than 80 years ago. The triad consisted of the United States Congress, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and last, but certainly not least, the local people who had organized themselves in 1922 into what is now the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association. Working together to solve the problems created by uncontrolled fl ooding of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, the triad successfully secured passage of the Flood Control Act of v Divine Providence May 15, 1928 that created, among other things, the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. The Mississippi River and Tributaries Project is a comprehensive project that not only provides fl ood control but also a permanent and reliable navigation channel. In addition, the project plays a large role in the protection and restoration of man’s natural environment. It turns the third largest watershed on the planet into the greatest river basin in the world, not because of its size but because of its greatness, greatness because of the benefi ts derived from the entire watershed. These benefi ts are possible because the mighty river from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico has been controlled. It is now a huge asset to the entire Nation and one that belongs to the people because the people made it possible. It could well be called the People’s River. No one in his right mind looks forward with any degree of pleasure to experiencing a major record-setting fl ood because they are always a devastating and damaging event; but when a great fl ood has been experienced and passed in record time to the Gulf, then it has at least two benefi cial results. One, it gives us confi dence that what man has designed and constructed has been well done and two, it discloses where the weaknesses are in the system, even the one that worked so well. If we are smart, we will learn and make the necessary corrections, improvements and repairs before the next fl ood occurs as it surely will. This book will be of great assistance to those who read it and learn. I hope you use it wisely and for the good of the people of this great Nation. George C. Grugett Executive Vice President Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association January 29, 2012 vi Preface As the historian for the Mississippi River Commission and the Mis- sissippi River and Tributaries project, I face the dilemma of leaving behind a record of current events for future generations. Oddly, it is easier for me to document the activities and accomplishments of the commission and the project from one hundred years ago than fi ve or ten years ago. This is because very few paper records exist nowadays. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi River Commis- sion generate voluminous amounts of memoranda, studies, correspondence, and briefi ngs, but most can only be found in an electronic format. It was against this backdrop that I endeavored to produce this study. I do not view the pages that follow as a historical study, although I do incorporate historical material to provide context for key elements of the story. Instead, the narrative is more representative of an eye- witness account of a historic event. During several presentations and speaking engagements that I delivered after the fl ood, my audiences seemed to want the answer to three basic questions. The fi rst involved the decision-making processes at the three fl oodways placed into opera- tion in 2011. The second involved the history of the Birds Point-New Madrid fl oodway. The third involved the absence of a fl oodway to relieve pressure between the Birds Point-New Madrid fl oodway and the Old River control complex. This study attempts to addresses those questions. The chapters that chronicle the 2011 fl ood rely heavily on my own notes – a diary of sorts – interviews conducted after the event with key players that I identifi ed during my coverage of the fl ood, daily situation reports from the district offi ces, daily emergency management briefi ngs vii Divine Providence that tracked changing conditions, and electronic correspondence. To that end, one of the purposes of this study is to leave behind a transparent record of the 2011 fl ood so that future historians will have a central repository to work from. Yet, there is one caveat. The fl ood roughly spanned a three-week period and impacted the entire Mississippi River and Tributaries project system. Naturally, I could not be in all places at once, so coverage is limited to the three fl oodways and the fl ood fi ght in the Vicksburg Engineer District. Heroic fl ood fi ghts took place along both banks of the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atchafalaya River from Simmesport to Morgan City. The absence of a detailed discussion at any specifi c location is in no way intended to trivialize those desperate efforts to convey the fl ood. The chapters that provide historical context rely heavily on my personal collection of primary source material accumulated over the past decade in the form of correspondence, technical papers, reports, and Engineering News-Record articles. For those interested in learning more about the history of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, I strongly recommend Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800-1995, by Martin Reuss and Upon Their Shoulders: A history of the Mississippi River Commission through the advent of the Modern Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, by Charles Camillo and Matthew Pearcy. For those interested in compar- ing what could have been during the historic 2011 fl ood to what happened in the valley during the 1927 fl ood prior to the establishment of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project, I recommend Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, by John Barry.

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