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Reporter's Statement of the Case

Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway-Interference due to experienced overflow on Matthews lands south and west of Barkers Ridge. Dates of earliest and latest overflow and included time in days with reference to indicated elevations—Continued

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Of plaintiff's land 1,184 acres are below elevation 288 feet mean gulf level, and 245 acres above 300 feet mean gulf level. Plaintiff's land below these elevations are subject to backwater overflow at varying stages of the river as follows:

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Reporter's Statement of the Case

Thus, about 99 per cent of plaintiff's land within the floodway is under backwater, ranging from zero to 18 feet in depth when the river stage is at or exceeds 55 feet on the

Cairo gauge.

When the section of the riverside levee at the north end of the floodway is cut down to correspond to an elevation of 55 feet on the Cairo gauge, and when a crest stage of that magnitude is reached, the head water which flows over the reduced portion of the levee will course down the floodway and meet or enter upon a cushion of backwater of from zero to 18 feet in depth, standing over plaintiff's land. The velocity will be retarded and become a mere drift of water. The velocity of any headwater will not be sufficient to wash out, destroy, or damage any of the trees or land. The velocity upon reaching plaintiff's lands will not exceed one mile an hour.

The land of the plaintiff lying north and east of Barkers Ridge is also subjected to the servitude of the accumulated surface-drainage waters flowing down from the northern part of the floodway area. These waters unite with the backwaters from the river to increase the depth and duration of overflow.

EFFECT OF RECENT FLOODWATERS

16. The flood of 1927, after it crevassed the river-front levee near Dorena at the southeastern extremity of the floodway area, flowed across the southern part of Mississippi County, the eastern part of New Madrid County, and over the greater portion of the Upper St. Francis Basin, 20 miles to the west as far back as East Prairie and Sikeston Ridge, completely inundating plaintiff's land. The water stood just above 55 feet on the Cairo gauge when the crevasse in the levee occurred. Before the break at Dorena, and when the Cairo gauge stood at 52.8 feet, the greater part of plaintiff's land was submerged from backwater which had previously entered through St. Johns Bayou, and from surface rain water, which had come down through the drainage ditches from the north and gradually spread out over the territory. This backwater condition existed on March 25, 1927, 20 days before the levee broke at Dorena.

Reporter's Statement of the Case

After the waters had spread over the area, following the crevasse at Dorena, the new levees on the river front at the present location of the lower fuse plug were blown open with dynamite by local interests, in order that the impounded waters behind the levees might more quickly return to the main channel of the river, thereby reducing the flood stages.

Neither the local interests which dynamited the openings nor the Levee District which maintained the levee ever repaired or closed the openings thus blown out. Water from the main channel continued from that time and now continues to back up through these openings and contributes to the swell of the backwater that comes into and over plaintiff's land through the mouth of St. Johns Bayou.

The floods of 1929, 1933, and 1935, overflowed from 83 to 91 per cent of plaintiff's land, the water coming in upon them through drainage ditches due to the backing up of water into them through St. Johns Bayou and the dynamited openings in the south end of the levee. These openings existed prior to May 15, 1928, and were not created by the United States or any agent under its control.

17. Flood conditions in the Ohio Valley during January and February 1937, with practically no discharge from the Upper Mississippi River, resulted in a record stage at Cairo. Readings on the Cairo gauge showed a very rapid rise in the waters of the Mississippi River from 20.60 feet on January 1, 1937, to 40.9 on January 10; 50.0 on January 20, 55.0 on January 22, 58.0 early January 25, and, finally, a crest of 59.5 feet on February 3, 1937, after the riverside levee along the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway had been overtopped and crevassed by the waters of the Mississippi River in numerous places. The Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway carried from 20 to 25 percent of the flood water. If the entire flood waters of the Mississippi River could have been confined between the riverside levees, the Cairo gauge would have been at least 63 feet. The readings on both the Cairo and the New Madrid gauges from January 1 to February 20, 1937, were as follows:

109870-39-c.c.-vol. 87-46

Reporter's Statement of the Case

Gauge readings Mississippi River, Cairo and New Madrid, 1937 [Cairo Gauge: Zero-270.41 MGL. New Madrid Gauge: Zero=255.96 MGL]

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Reporter's Statement of the Case

Gauge readings Mississippi River, Cairo and New Madrid, 1987-Con.

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