Chapter 14 Summary

In the Delta during the 1920s, times are changing. The pace of technological and social change is rapid. Unseasonably high rivers in 1926 have prevented a large amount of annual levee maintenance and repair. Winter and spring storms in 1927 are extensive, full of precipitation and violent. Early in the year, tornadoes and high winds damage levees. Wave action on rivers throughout the region also damages levees.

Levee sabotage is feared. Individuals living on one side of the river could almost completely eliminate levee failure flood to their region by causing the levee on the other side of the river to fail. Early in 1927, communities begin to patrol their levees with armed men. Guards in Marked Tree, Arkansas, shoot four men trying to plant dynamite. Shootings continue for months.

As rivers rise and rain continues, local levee boards start operating continuously to try and strengthen...