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<br /> <br />OJ1l35 <br /> <br />--- <br /> <br />J <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />I.. <br /> <br />- - ~1----- <br /> <br />Figure 15. Em6fgency Oike Erected Around Vital Electrical FacIlity in Jackson. MISSissippi, Apnl, 1979_ <br />(Photo: R. P1att)_ <br /> <br />discharge of 130,000 cis. The 11ayor of <br />Jackson estimatRd $500 million in dam- <br />age to the city with 17,000 poople <br />driven from their homes-the 1979 flood <br />was thus far costlier and more disruptive <br />than the one in 1961. despite the Corps <br />flood control project completed in 196B. <br />A new sewage treatment plant was de- <br />stroyed, and many other vital services <br />were threawned with collapse (Fig. 15). <br />Apart from the seventeen-year prelude <br />setting the scene for this disaster. two <br />points were notable during the flood: <br /> <br />. .\Iany people thought the city <br />might have been saved or the flood <br />at least lessenro: if the Ross Barnett <br />Dam had be-en operated to ma.xi- <br />mize its flood holding capacity by <br />having periodic and well-publicized <br />releases before thl;' crisis began to <br />peak. (Releases did increase grad. <br />ually b~nning April 11, but at a <br />pace less than inflow to the reser. <br />voir from upstream.) The U.S. Gen. <br />eral Accounting Office has criti- <br />cized lack of coordination among <br />fedt'ral, state, and local officials rp- <br />garding the operation of the dam. <br /> <br />. The flood fight was heroic but frag. <br />mented, with the levee in Jackson <br />prematurely abandoned and mas- <br />sive resources devoted to the east <br />side levee surrounding much nat- <br />ural floodplain. <br /> <br />The above two points indicate the <br />need for emergency plans that are coor. <br />dinated among the various public au- <br />thorities and jurisdictions and well- <br />established prior to the portent of any <br />disaster. It is not enough to rise to the <br />oCl'asion; YOll mllst know which way to <br />turn. And equally. mit~ation after a <br />flood must, while meeting urgent needs, <br />be done with an eye to the future. <br />How was relief brouWlt to the Jackson <br />area? Again. heroically. and again, in a <br />rather hasty and unplanned fashion. <br />Within two days, six federal disa..ter cen. <br />ters were set Up, and over the next year <br />51-15 million was allocated to help ~Iis- <br />sissippi recover. This money was not <br />given unconditionally; in 197.1. Congress <br />passed an act (P.L. 93-288) requiring <br />that federal disaster relief money be ac. <br />companied with actions by the state and <br />local governments to mitigate the causal <br /> <br />31 <br />