<P> By August 1927, the flood subsided . Hundreds of thousands of people had been made homeless and displaced; properties, livestock and crops were destroyed . </P> <P> In terms of population affected, in territory flooded, in property loss and crop destruction, the flood's figures were "staggering". Great loss of life was averted by relief efforts, largely by the American Red Cross through the efforts of local workers . African Americans, comprising 75% of the population in the Delta lowlands and supplying 95% of the agricultural labor force, were most affected by the flood . Historians estimate that of the 637,000 people forced to relocate by the flooding, 94% lived in three states: Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana; and that 69% of the 325,146 who occupied the relief camps were African American . In one location, over 13,000 evacuees near Greenville, Mississippi, were gathered from area farms, and evacuated to the crest of the unbroken Greenville Levee . But many were stranded there for days without food or clean water . </P> <P> Following the Great Flood of 1927, the US Army Corps of Engineers was charged with taming the Mississippi River . Under the Flood Control Act of 1928, the world's longest system of levees was built . Floodways that diverted excessive flow from the Mississippi River were constructed . While the levees prevented some flooding, scientists have found that they changed the flow of the Mississippi River, with the unintended consequence of increasing flooding in succeeding decades . Channeling of waters has reduced the absorption of seasonal rains by the floodplains, increasing the speed of the current and preventing the deposit of new soils along the way . </P> <P> States also needed money to rebuild their roads and bridges . Louisiana received $1,067,336 from the federal government for rebuilding, but it had to institute a state gasoline tax to create a $30,000,000 fund to pay for new hard - surfaced highways . </P>

When was the mississippi river levee system built