in the southern part of the country river flooding rather than glaciers had formed
the wetlands one million acres of coastal islands and marshes along the gulf have disappeared in
the last century the storm was on course to destroy the city
sediments deposited along the river's shore by floods created natural levees every three miles of marshland reduces the surge tide by a foot, dispersing the storm's
power on our computers we could watch the hurricane system grow
during annual flooding, water overspilled the river's levees and submerged the bottomlands the chief executive formally refused the state a restored network of barrier islands
and coastal marshes we could only imagine what it would be like trying to get out of the city
bottomland forests grew luxuriant, supporting forty species of wetland trees an area of land equal to the state-sized glacier that calved two years ago has turned
to water between the city and the gulf since the last world war, most of it former marshland we imagined people holing up for the storm
the treetops stretched from horizon to horizon—one hundred twenty miles at the floodplain's
widest point had the storm struck around the year that we used the atom bomb, the surge that reached
the city could have been ten feet less we couldn't imagine wanting to leave but not being able to
moving downstream, bottomland forests graded from freshwater marshes to brackish areas
to salt marshes, forming a coastal band one hundred miles wide former marshes, as well as barrier islands, were created by the sediment that the
river's flood waters deposited over thousands of years the storm pushed water into the manmade lake behind the city
there were five million acres of coastal marsh built from the river sediment modern levees have prevented natural flooding, and the existing wetlands, starved
for new sediments and nutrients, have eroded and washed away wind pushed the water and slammed against the walls protecting the ward below
the explorer found natural levees of sediment that had been deposited during spring
floods at the mouth of the huge river every thirty minutes, even without hurricanes, during the time of this reading, a
football field of land turns to water a barge broke loose and breached a hole in the levee
the explorer chose one of the natural levees for his new town site, not knowing that
the river drained two-thirds of the continent a plan to fix the problem, worth two months of spending on the big war or the cost
of a tunnel under the harbor of a northeastern city, has been on the table for years water from the storm filled the city's poorest neighborhoods
enormous trees of the bottomland forests were cut to carve out a space for the town the plan would use pumps and canals to guide a portion of the river's sediment back
toward the coastal wetlands without destroying existing communities the government whose chief officers were on vacation ignored the news
soon over forty two miles of earthworks lined both sides of the river the plan would rebuild a million acres of wetlands over time and reconstruct barrier
islands in as little as twelve months the same government that had flown to the capital at midnight to save a brain-dead
woman's life stayed home
soon a large flood destroyed most of the town's levees the national academy of sciences confirmed the soundness of the plan and urged quick
action it was still summer and the chief executive was clearing brush
its role as a port town and commercial hub continued to grow the city in his final spending package submitted after the storm, the chief executive dismissed
the plan with a proposed authorization less than two percent the amount requested the perception was that the people huddled on their rooftops or herded into the stadium
were mostly black
whites from the far north and blacks from the south re-created their communities and
cultures in the remote bayous in speeches given for cameras on the gulf since the storm hit, the chief executive
has not once mentioned the words barrier islands or wetlands bodies floated through the streets like scenes from the tsunami
because its wood resisted rot, the baldycypress became a popular source for roofing
shingles the government's lack of preparedness for the hurricane catastrophe was palpable the carnage resembled pictures from floods in countries a world away or medieval allegories
during winters, farm slaves often rived shingles in the swamps the government sent one employee to the city before the storm on our televisions we watched men, women and children crying in their filth
planters hired poor white and yellow immigrants, who risked their own lives at no
expense to the owners the war on misery has not yet been declared we tried to imagine what it would be like to get shipped away to another state
as sap-filled trees do not float, crews would gird the cypress and leave them to dry
out during the winter some of the residents of the poor flooded parishes suspected that the levees had
been dynamited to protect wealthier neighborhoods we couldn't imagine so many children being separated from families
when the high water of spring came again, slaves cut and floated the dried up trees
to the mill the river, swollen with rains and spring snow melt, burst its banks to flood six states
in nineteen twenty seven either three hundred or twenty three hundred people are still missing five months
later
at a giant oxbow rafts containing thousands of logs and covering acres of river and
slough were assembled and displayed officials made the decision to blow up the levee and flood the parish to spare the
city unlike in the aftermath of a terrorist attack there were no faces of the dead published
on the front pages of newspapers
soon after the nation purchased the area, hopeful citizens moved in to farm sugarcane
on the bottomlands when a hurricane pushed storm surge over the canal in nineteen sixty five and flooded
the ward people remembered nineteen twenty seven some said they let the water sit on them to destroy them and take the land away
planters pushed the whites from the far north, the native peoples and blacks from
the south deeper into the bottomland swamps during the nineteen sixty five hurricane the black people armed themselves and guarded
the levees behind their neighborhood some were not surprised when the president did not mention the storm in addressing
the state of the nation
to protect the land from regular spring floods an elaborate, poorly coordinated system
of levees was built the government has allowed its workers not to wear clothing identifying themselves
in the area many of us hoped for a public conversation about wetlands and how wetlands could help
us rebuild a great city
every levee built upstream sent more water further down the river political tensions are so bad the governor is threatening not to renew leases on oil
platforms in the gulf some warned the city would be an island in the sea at the end of our lives
for decades, residents sat like ducks before a loaded gun as the river discharged
its floodwaters it probably doesn't matter whether the levee was blown up or left to rot from the
inside out some of us gave to the red cross for the first time in our lives
many residents were surprised to learn that their city had been built on a primeval
forest only five two-bedroom apartments meet the approved budget of less than eight hundred
dollars a month one of the government's worst crimes against its own people was eclipsed by a quail
hunting accident between oil executives
construction crews excavating a drainage canal unearthed ancient cypress stumps from
trees cut by the city's founders thousands became homeless again, wheeling their lives out on luggage carts or dragging
garbage bags through lobbies, when the government stopped paying their hotel bills. none of us were prepared to acknowledge how little we had learned about wetlands
_________________
A NOTE: three temporalities flood each stanza in its three lines, successively and
respectively, the distant past, the recent past, and the immediate past
Jonathan Skinner's "A Natural History of Levees" will be published as a pamphlet by
Billy Mills and Catherine Walsh with Hard Pressed Books in Ireland.
