1979 Easter flood

The 1979 Easter flood was among the most costly and devastating floods ever to occur in Mississippi, with $500-700 million in damages.[3] $1.76 billion in 2020 dollars.[2] It was the result of the Pearl River being overwhelmed by severe rain upstream. Floodwaters sent the Pearl 15 feet above flood stage. More than 17,000 residents of Jackson, Flowood, Pearl, Richland and other Mississippi communities were forced from their homes. The flooding of the Pearl River placed most of Jackson, the state's capital city, under water.[4]

1979 Easter Flood
Flood waters inundated downtown Jackson during the "1979 Easter Flood".
DateApril 1979
LocationHinds County, Madison County, Rankin County

Map showing the Pearl River in Mississippi.
Deaths4 [1]
Property damage$500 million then[1]
$1.76 billion today[2]

The river
Main article: Pearl River (Mississippi-Louisiana)

The Pearl River is 490 miles long. It begins in Winston County, Mississippi and ends at the Mississippi Sound. Northeast of Jackson, the man-made Ross Barnett Reservoir is formed by a dam in the Pearl River. It flooded due to abnormally high rainfall in the preceding months (up to 150% more than usual).[5] The water level reached a record-setting 43.28 feet on April 17, 1979.[6]

Present

Flood stage at Jackson in 1979 was considered to be 18 feet (relative to the gauge datum on Pearl River), but as of 2004, this stage was set as 28 feet.[1]

References
  1. Meteorologist-In-Charge in 1979. "Excerpts from a preliminary report by the Meteorologist-In-Charge in 1979 to the Acting Director Southern Region of the National Weather Service dated April 20, 1979". National Weather Service Jackson.
  2. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  3. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jan/?n=1979_04_17_easter_flood
  4. "Facts | Pearl River Vision Foundation". www.pearlrivervisionms.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-02-15.
  5. Service, US Department of Commerce, NOAA, National Weather. "NWS Jackson, MS 1979 Pearl River Flood". www.srh.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-15.
  6. Case, Bert. "Case Files: Could the Easter flood of 1979 happen again?". WAPT. Retrieved 2016-02-15.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.