Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Cairo responded to the flood threat by constructing not one but two levees. One was built
around a huge flat area outside of town and another (shown here) to protect Cairo itself.
The idea was that if the floodwaters threatened to top the Cairo levee and enter the town,
then the other levee could be dynamited and the water would rush through that break, flood-
ing the flat land but relieving the threat on the Cairo levee.
The 1937 flood represented the first test of Cairo's unusual levee system. With the floodwa-
ters threatening Cairo, workers were dispatched to dynamite the outer levee. They were
greeted by a group of shotgun-carrying farmers who made it clear they did not want their
land flooded. The first demolition crew retreated, to be replaced by a second crew, this one
backed up by a detachment of National Guard. The levee was dynamited.
