The Great Flood:

The Flood of 1927 was caused by heavy rainfall throughout the United States from August 1926 to the spring of 1927, inundating more than twenty thousand square miles throughout the Mississippi River Valley. By springtime, floodwaters destroyed more than 120 levees and created 42 crevasses along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, causing flooding from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

Flooding was widespread and impacted several states, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and hundreds of people perished—the exact number is unknown. The flood was one of the worst disasters in American history. The following year, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928, which authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create the Mississippi Rivers and Tributaries Project to better protect communities and valuable farmland from future flooding on the Mississippi River system.

As we approach the centennial of this major event in our country’s history, the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (LTHP) is working with a network of partners to examine how this flood changed our cultural landscape and continues to do so to this day. The Great Flood Project will share stories of the disaster’s impact and encourage the public to visit the region for a better understanding of the places and communities that were affected.