ect. That is the only hope that we have for adequate flood protection. The strongest levees that we could build would still cause a great deal of flooding when we have these stream floods.

Mr. ALLEN. In other words, Mr. Odom, it would take levees considerably higher than the levees which are contemplated in this report to hold back the waters if we did not have the reservoirs and even then we would be in jeopardy because of the extreme high levees.

Mr. ODOм. That is right.

Mr. ALLEN. And, of course, it would send the water back up the tributary streams.

Mr. ODOM. Yes. The higher the water is in your river, which you do raise by increasing the size of your levees and leveeing off more land, the higher it is in the river, the higher it goes back up on these tributary areas.

I think Red River must be one of the last rivers in the country, of the importance it has, to be given an over-all treatment. I think that this is a great step in our area, and I am certain that the United States it no going to find that they have made a bad investment when they give us flood protection down there, because the value is there, and if the people can be protected, that country is really going to come

out.

I would like to point out the conservativeness of the Army engineers' reports in that they did not consider such things as the necessity for schools in the valley to quit operating, and those things such as towns, the business of the towns, when we have floods, necessarily suffers a great falling off, and a number of incidental disadvantages to a catastrophe like we had in 1945, that it is not readily assigned a cash value, and in computing their benefits, of course, they were unable to put that in there. Our benefits from this flood protection will be far greater than the total amount that they use to justify the project.

Mr. ALLEN. I appreciate that statement, Mr. Odom, because I think that, as Senator Overton pointed out, the Corps of Engineers was very conservative as the corps is always conservative, and rightly so. We are not saying that critically of the corps at all. We appreciate the fact that they are conservative, because the people have learned long ago that when the Corps of Engineers of the War Department says something, they have something to back that up.

I think the corps was very good, and I think there were a great many of what we call secondary damages which could have, with propriety, been taken into consideration. But we are not finding fault. We have what we think plenty of leeway as the matter stands now.

I appreciate the fact that you pointed out that only a portion of this flooded area, and his land involved is in Louisiana, that a greater amount of this land is upstream, out of Louisiana. Louisiana is by no means getting the bulk of the benefit.

Now, Mr. Odom, do you have anything else to say?

Mr. ODOм. No, sir; except that more than half of the damage that occurred in the 1945 flood occurred in Louisiana.

Mr. ALLEN. I would like to call on Mr. Homer H. Harris, of Alexandria, La.

Let me say that I appreciate the fact that you gentlemen from Alexandria and Natchitoches have taken time to come up here, and assist us, and you have always been cooperative and very helpful in these matters.

STATEMENT OF HOMER H. HARRIS, SR., ALEXANDRIA, LA., CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS OF LOUISIANA, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE RED RIVER VALLEY IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION, DIRECTOR OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ASSOCIATION

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chairman, I have a statement that I will file. Everything is being covered so well that I do not want to take up the time of the committee to add anything to it.

However, I want to say that there is no objection from any source that I can find to this project.

Mr. ALLEN. And you think the project is a good one, and that our people are all for it!

Mr. HARRIS. Yes, sir.

Mr. ALLEN. Your statement will be filed.

(The statement is as follows:)

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, my residence and business address is Alexandria, La. I appear before you today to voice my approval of the United States Army engineers' interim emergency flood-control report for Red River below Denison Dam.

I am in position to testify from my own observations that an emergency actually exists on Red River. I have seen floods on Red River since 1912, and have worked on the levees during floods when it took every available man to fill sandbags and carry them to patch weak spots in the levee. I have stood guard, and patrolled Red River levees during flood times, and have seen the disaster that follows crevasses and breaks in the levees.

Each succeeding high water on Red River goes higher than the one before, and if we continue to depend upon levees alone, sooner or later we will face a major disaster in the lower Red River Valley.

Due to the building of additional sections of levee here and there along the river, and the resulting loss of reservoir space, and also on account of the removal of thousands of acres of virgin timber from the lands in this watershed, Red River water becomes higher each flood, and the current becomes swifter.

At Alexandria during the flood of 1945 the current in the Red River was 8 miles per hour, the water was the highest gage in history, there was water above the floor of the Alexandria-Pineville traffic bridge for many days, and there was fear the bridge would wash out. Men were required on guard 24 hours a day to keep drift from piling up against the structure, since it could not pass underneath the bridge floor. It was only by the grace of God and due to clear weather that the stretch of levee between Alexandria and Boyce on the west bank of the river did not give way. In fact the levees had to be built up during the flood by drag lines on top of those soft levees to save them.

It was only due to the availability from nearby Army camps of German war prisoner labor that the levee was saved on Bayou Jean de Jean between Zimmerman and Hot Wells, and also below Alexandria at two places. The Corps of Engineers rescued the situation by commandeering nearly all the dirt-moving machinery and trucks in the State of Louisiana to haul dirt to construct an emergency set-back levee where the river had eaten one-half of the regular levee, and had that levee broken the entire Red River Valley below, as well as all the land between Alexandria and the Gulf of Mexico would have been inundated. We believe our luck has been depended upon too long already, and favor taking

necessary steps to prevent future floods, by holding these waters back during high water in reservoirs upstreams as provided by the interim report of the Corps of Engineers.

When you live behind levees day in and day out with the water from 10 to 15 feet above the streets of cities like Alexandria, where a break in the levee would not only cause catastrophic damage but take a large toll of human life as well, you become very flood-control conscious, and live in continuous unrelenting fear that at any time excessive rains may set in and result in a flash flood that will cause damages that will require a decade to recover from. Red River is a wild and roving river. It is a heavy silt carrier and its banks are very unstable due to the alluvial deposit soil of the valley being about the consistency of granulated sugar when it becomes wet.

It will require the combined knowledge and skill of the United States Army engineers to make Red River safe from floods if they are authorized to execute their plans to protect this highly important and fertile valley. We citizens in the valley have confidence in the Army engineers, and it is our hope that your honorable committee will return a favorable report on this project in order that their plans may be promptly executed.

I thank you for the privilege to be heard by your committee.

Mr. ALLEN. I now present Mr. Fred C. Barksdale, of Alexandria, La.

STATEMENT OF FRED C. BARKSDALE, VICE PRESIDENT, BROWNROBERTS HARDWARE & SUPPLY CO., LTD., ALEXANDRIA, LA.

Mr. BARKSDALE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I shall not consume your time, either.

May I point out that I have lived in that valley a long time, however, and have seen the devastation and the financial loss and even the loss of human life caused by the several floods mentioned in the general's report.

I would like to also point out that that area is very fertile and produces many, many of the products used by a hungry Nation, and hungry world, and a very fast-growing Nation.

For that reason I believe it is of very great national importance rather than of purely local interest.

I will submit this statement, Mr. Chairman, and thank you very much for your attention.

Mr. ALLEN. Thank you, Mr. Barksdale. We are glad to have your statement.

(The statement is as follows:)

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, it would be presumptuous for me to try to supplement the Army engineers' interim report on Red River Valley flood control. That excellent document gives detailed, authentic data on the physical devastation and direct financial loss to the people of a great and fertile section of this Nation. I accept as most conservative the tabulation of damages sustained. Living in the lower valley, in the heart of Louisiana, I have witnessed the several floods it mentions and the havoc wrought in their ever-widening paths. I have witnessed the pathetic plight of some of our people with all their worldly possessions-houses, crops, livestock-suddenly swept away from them, clinging to treetops while waiting for rescue.

So far we have managed to save my home city of Alexandria. But in each flood the water mounts higher than in the preceding one. Last April 1945, I saw Red River gage 10 feet higher than our downtown streets, and, for the first time in history, saw an 8-mile current run over the floor of our traffic bridge. Some of our highways and railways were abandoned, and for a time it seemed we were to be completely isolated from the outside world.

Louisiana, the funnel through which the floodwaters must pass, is richly endowed with Nature's precious gifts. Our fertile lands normally produce an abundance of the needs of a growing Nation and a hungry world.

It must be remembered that losses tabulated in the engineers' report are actual, and, I believe, most conservative. The loss of business that might have developed cannot be estimated. The property devastation and possible loss of life from a levee break in front of Alexandria staggers one's imagination.

The economic development of Louisiana and Red River Valley is being held in check by the constant menace of devastating flood threat. We have the basic factors needed to bring wide economic development-an abundance of precious raw materials, now being processed elsewhere, ample fuel, spacious industrial sites, year-round mild climate, a plentiful supply of native labor, and lands that abundantly produce the vital needs for which America and the world cry today. Flood control in Red River Valley is not a local problem. It is a definite national need.

Mr. ALLEN. I now present Mr. Henderson, of Alexandria, La.

STATEMENT OF HARRY HENDERSON, JR., REPRESENTING THE SECRETARY OF THE RED RIVER AND ATCHAFALAYA RIVER BOARD

Mr. HENDERSON. I represent the secretary of the Red River and Atchafalaya River Board, which covers the alluvial parishes and three parishes in central Louisiana. The levee begins at the hills of Hot Wells, traverses Bayou Jean de Jean, follows the east bank of Bayou Jean de Jean where it enters Red River at Boyce. It follows the east bank of Red River below Monclau Bridge and begins with the west bank of the Atchafalaya, and goes below the Croft Springs Bridge.

Now, while we only cover three parishes of the alluvial lands, and three parishes in central Louisiana, our south bank levee protects the entire south Louisiana west of the Atchafalaya River, and I will pause a moment to pay tribute to the Corps of Engineers, as last year at Roxana, or Harris Ferry, we were threatened with a break of the River that threatened to crevasse at that point. The levee had 8 feet of freeboard, but the cutting or caving of the bank threatened the integrity of the levee line.

They moved in, and in a period of 4 days moved approximately 44,000 yards of dirt, and we had everybody from all the representatives of south Louisiana there, and they were extremely worried about that water going through the levee at that place because it endangered all of their home lands.

The Red River is an unusual river inasmuch as 1 day in a period of 24 hours from 7 o'clock one morning to 7 o'clock the next morning, that river rose 10.2 feet.

The corps has always responded and helped us, and if it were not for them, I do not know what we would do. The people in the valley are wholeheartedly in sympathy with the program outlined by the Corps of Engineers, and there is no opposition whatsoever.

Mr. ALLEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Henderson, for that very fine statement.

Now I present Mr. J. E. Bailes, of Natchitoches, La.

Natchitoches is the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase territory. We are very glad to have Mr. Bailes, just returned from the service.

STATEMENT OF JULIAN E. BAILES, ATTORNEY AT LAW, NATCHITOCHES, LA., REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CITY OF NATCHITOCHES, THE NATCHITOCHES PORT DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, THE CANE RIVER LEVEE BOARD, AND THE NATCHITOCHES LEVEE BOARD

Mr. BAILES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I represent the citizens of Natchitoches, and the Cane River Levee Board and the Natchitoches Levee Board.

While I was not in the 1945 flood, I believe it is the only one I have missed, though, since I came into the world.

Mr. ALLEN. You missed that because you were overseas fighting. Mr. BAILES. Yes, sir.

Natchitoches and Natchitoches Parish suffered an excess of over $3,000,000 damage. That is not, as we all know, the first time that Natchitoches and the Red River Valley has been ravaged by floods.

We have the utmost confidence in the plan set forth by the Corps of Engineers. The citizens of Natchitoches and Natchitoches Parish are wholeheartedly behind this program.

I think most of the other points that I have are covered in this statement which I wish to submit for the record.

(The statement is as follows: )

Mr. Chairman, and members of the Flood Control Committee, it is an honor for me to appear before you this morning to present the case for the citizens of Natchitoches and Natchitoches Parish, La. I have not any intention of entering into a technical discussion of flood control.

But what I do want to do is to tell you what I actually know and have actually experienced in floods.

I do not have any personal knowledge of the 1945 flood, because I was not in the United States during that time. But I have driven over the affected areas of Natchitoches Parish and have been told where and how deep the water was at points in those areas.

My father was a Red River plantation owner. He was actively engaged in farming in 1927. We all recall the 1927 flood-it wasn't the first one nor the last one. There was a flood again in 1928, again in 1933, then the great and disastrous flood of 1945. In 1927 I saw rich valley land which produced a bale of cotton per acre flooded with 6 feet of water. When the water returned to the banks of the river there was pure sand 4 to 6 feet deep deposited on this land. In other places great gorges were eaten out by crevasses.

In our home sand was a foot deep on the floor. The house was ruined, together with all interior decorations.

The same thing happened to hundreds of farms and plantations. affected to a worse extent.

Some were

In the 1945 flood in Natchitoches Parish, La., alone over $3,000,000 damage was done. Through the years Natchitoches Parish has lost tens and tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and lost profits because of depreciation in value of land. Land that is worth $100 per acre in nonfloodable areas is absolutely not worth more than $30 per acre. That, gentlemen, has cost us many, many thousands of dollars. That, in my opinion, is not a potential or intangible damage, but rather it is an actual and tangible loss and damage.

I know one plantation owner who sacrificed his plantation after the 1945 flood. This man lost 200 head of the finest cattle to be found in the Red River Valley. On this man's plantation deep sand was deposited and where crevasses occurred great eroded areas were left and houses were left off their foundations.

This is one of many, gentlemen. The city of Natchitoches was cut off for weeks from the outside world except by air and water. Traffic of all sorts was cut off. The busses, truck lines, and trains were stopped. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to the thousands of dollars lost by reason of the condition by the stopping of trade.