This board does not build any levees whatsoever in
the State of Louisiana, but does all its work with Louisiana money, in
the State of Arkansas, where it has constructed, and maintains,
eighty-two miles of levees, protecting the northeastern corner of
Louisiana from floods which would originate in Arkansas. These same
levees, however, also protect large tracts of land in Arkansas, for
which protection the inhabitants of Arkansas do not pay one cent,
knowing that their Louisiana neighbors are forced, for their own safety,
to do the work.
Cairo, Illinois, is the barometer of the river's rise and fall, the gage
at that point being used as the basis for estimates for the entire river
below Cairo. These estimates are made by computations which are so
accurate that Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans know, days or even
weeks in advance, when to expect high water, and within a few inches of
the precise height the floods will reach.
Some years since, the United States engineer in charge of a river
district embracing a part of Louisiana, notified the local levee boards
that unusually high water might be expected on a certain date and that
several hundred miles of levees would have to be "capped" in order to
prevent overflow. The local boards in turn notified the planters, in
sections where capping was necessary.
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