1. What does Major General Thomas Sands do each year on the Mississippi in late summer or early fall?
(a) Hosts the Water Recreation Festival.
(b) Takes a Low Water Inspection Trip.
(c) Conducts Homeland Security military exercises.
(d) Trains new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recruits.

2. In the early days of New Orleans, residents build their homes on what?
(a) Concrete risers.
(b) Sand piles.
(c) Metal bridges.
(d) Natural levees.

3. Rabalais says he remembers being taught in high school that one day, these would be built:
(a) Lighter and sturdier barges.
(b) Ships to travel faster along rivers.
(c) Skyscrapers along the river banks.
(d) Structures to control water flows.

4. In New Orleans' earliest days, French settlers begin to live there despite the fact that the area:
(a) Belongs to Spain.
(b) Is plagued by giant storms on a weekly basis.
(c) Is full of poisonous snakes.
(d) Has practically no solid ground.

5. Every thousand years or so, the Mississippi River goes through a major shift that leaves behind what?
(a) Bayous and natural levees.
(b) Dry mudflats.
(c) Large, deep saltwater lakes.
(d) Stranded bird colonies.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the spring of 1973, what does the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers do to try to alleviate the tremendous force of water against the control structure?

2. Norris F. Rabalais was born and raised in what Louisiana parish?

3. What does James B. Eads invent to explore the Mississippi River?

4. When floodwaters cover twenty-six thousand square miles in 1927, how is New Orleans saved?

5. Throughout the book, a predominant theme is that the following gets in the way of man's plans:

(see the answer key)

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