Levee break at Mounds Landing, MS - 1927

Photo courtesy of the Archival Photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS

Came across this photo while working on Southern Cross the Dog (Amistad: HarperCollins, May 2013). More to come.

During the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, levees were dynamited to spare the more densely populated regions down-river. The blast reduces the pressure in the canal, cutting a trench in the canal bed and slowing the river. The consequence however was that the surrounding regions, often populated by impoverished and rural families, were destroyed by the floodwaters.