Appreciating the floodwall, and leaders who built it

Downtown Cape Girardeau is seen behind the flood wall that is protecting the town from the flooded Mississippi River on May 6.

Laura Simon

At the height of the recent Mississippi River flood in Cape Girardeau, which did not reach the predicted crest that would've been the second highest of all-time but still ranks as one of the highest in history, Southeast Missourian photo editor Laura Simon was able to capture an image from a helicopter looking back at downtown Cape Girardeau.

The image went viral and reached nearly half a million people on Facebook. It was an impressive image: the water just a few feet from the top, with the bustling downtown protected from nature's harm.

In today's society we are often captured by the moment. Whether it be the tendency to take selfies, or be captured by the whims of the political story of the day, we observe the world through a lens of what is happening now. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes we can overlook the importance of the past. When Simon captured that image of the Mississippi River against that floodwall, she wasn't just capturing an image of the May 2017 flood. She captured an image of foresight and investment that began some 90 or so years ago.

The flood wall project is 8,240 feet, including 2,175 feet of levee and 6,065 feet of floodwall; it includes two pumping stations, five closure structures and a rock berm, according to the United States Army Corps of Engineers website. The wall stands 17 to 20 feet tall, and it would take a flood stage of about 56 feet to overtop the structure.

The construction of Cape's flood wall began in 1956, but it wasn't completed until 1964.

A flood in downtown Cape Girardeau is shown before the floodwall was built.

Southeast Missourian archive

The wall has simply become part of the downtown landscape. We are used to it, and grateful for it. Without it, we probably wouldn't have a Main Street lined with businesses today. It has saved property and the most historic part of our town. It's been turned into a living history, with murals painted on it, depicting the city's relationship with the river.

But building the wall was not an easy decision or process. Building the wall was a controversial decision back in the late 1940s, when the project was moving forward in earnest. There was even a lawsuit filed seeking to halt the construction of the wall. It was thought that the city would lose a major tourist attraction if the river were shut off. Some claimed that the "wind from the Mississippi and the East will be shut off, thereby imprisoning repugnant and offensive odors and creating a health menace," according to Southeast Missourian archives." Opponents also claimed that the location, size and height of the wall was "unreasonable and arbitrary."

The lawsuit was dropped after the Corps of Engineers agreed to include a floodwall gate at Themis Street, which provided a second gate in the wall for the downtown area.

The idea for the wall spawned after the historic 1927 flood. So from start to finish, it took more than three decades to build the wall that now protects downtown.

The leaders of Cape Girardeau and the Corps of Engineers long ago decided to invest into Cape Girardeau's future. It wasn't easy, but today we're still reaping the benefits of a floodwall that is the envy of communities up and down the river. We tip our caps to those leaders from previous generations who pushed for the wall and insisted on its completion.