dug a hole through the earthen levee in this eastern Missouri community, allowing water to penetrate the floodwall, which failed shortly before dawn.
I’m betting many if not most who have never lived alongside the lower Mississippi, never felt it’s sheer googletonnage creeping by as they slept, don’t really have a good grasp on what these poor souls are up against.
“He don’t plant taters,
He don’t plant cotton,
An’ them that plants ‘em
Is soon forgotten,
But Ol’ Man River,
He jus’ keeps rollin’ along.”
— Oscar Hammerstein II, “Ol’ Man River”
Them that plants ‘em is soon forgotten.
You know, I have driven over the Mississippi but never boated, fished or anything on it. In my younger days we canoed a bit. I remember being young and not letting a little thing like record rainfalls stop a planned trip. We hit rapids that were about 3 times as bad as we had ever seen before. One person lost it and over went the canoe. We all made it but when we found the canoe it was broken cleanly in half. This was a small river. I cannot imagine the power of the Mississippi in flood. Feel sorry for those folks.
STEVE
I’m a freelance outdoor writer from south central Kansas. I’m also a trapper and I’m interested in more facts about the possibility that muskrats caused some flooding in Lincoln Co. Missouri when a levee breached where they had tunneled into it. Can anyone help me with facts and personal stories?
Steve stevegilliland@embarqmail.com