High Water Everywhere The 1927 Mississippi Flood was incredibly destructive and left an indelible mark on the culture and the geography of the delta. Songs and pictures and →[More:]

Almost 700,000 people were displaced, and the city of New Orleans was only spared because poorer parishes downriver were flooded instead. Vicksburg water marks.

Here's an NPR story with John Barry, who wrote Rising Tide, the definitive book on the flood (there's also a link to his Fresh Air interview). Here's another NPR discussion with a musicologist talking about Blues and the Flood.

American Experience did a show on the Flood, and there is footage from the US Signal Corps available at the Internet Archive. Then, as now, the sitting President went to take a look.

Faulkner's novella "Old Man" was about the flood. It isn't online, but here he is reading a portion of it!

This whole post is really an excuse, though. An excuse to post links to Charley Patton's excellent, excellent songs: High Water Everywhere Part 1; and,
High Water Everywhere Part 2,
both about the flood. Enjoy.

(Special to jessamyn: Not to be confused with the Vermont flood of 1927, and this excellent site with pictures etc of old Vermont. 84 people (including the state's Lt. Governor!) died in the Vermont flood.