7
of floodway channels, control gates, and major levees along Lake Okeechobee’s
shores (Light et al. 1989). Construction of the Herbert Hoover Dike began in 1930
and in June of 1936, a national flood control policy was adopted by Congress (Light
and Dineen 1994; Light et al. 1995). The Flood Control Act of 1936 established the
policy that the Federal Government should:
…improve or participate in the improvement of navigable waters or their tributaries for
flood control purposes, if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue, are in excess of the
estimated cost, and if the lives and social security of the people are otherwise adversely
affected.
Then, as if divine forces were at work to scorn the man-made decisions to excessively drain the Everglades, extreme dry spells of little to no precipitation occurred
between 1931 and 1945. This successive lack of freshwater input resulted in a lowering of the groundwater, which then allowed seawater from the ocean to intrude on
a multitude of wells that Miami and other coastal cities depended upon. In addition,
the peaty, organic-rich soils of the Everglades that once depended upon the flooding
ability of Lake Okeechobee to keep them moist were now subjected to desiccation
(Snyder and Davidson 1994). Many areas caught fire in this dried-out state and were
lost forever. The U.S. government was so focused on draining the Everglades, they
never stopped to think that water conservation should be a necessary component of
any drainage plan. In fact, structures designed to drain certain areas, thus protecting
the people and farmland in time of floods, were also depriving the ecosystem of
necessary moisture inputs during dryer periods.
Just as water conservation was being debated and proposed as part of the ongoing Everglades drainage plan in the aftermath of one of the worst droughts in
Florida’s history, the unthinkable happened. In 1947, over 254 cm of rain fell on
south Florida, more than tripling the region’s total recorded rainfall for 1945. The
Great Flood of 1947 started on March 1 when a squall line dumped a welcome
15 cm of water on the parched agricultural lands of the upper Everglades. Rain was
subsequently plentiful in April and May, and then in June became so heavy that
chairman Dewey Hilsabeck called an emergency meeting of the Everglades
Drainage District (EDD), which still had jurisdiction over a vast network of drainage canals, dams, levees, locks, water-control structures, and hurricane gates (Light
and Dineen 1994). By opening the hurricane gates at Lake Okeechobee, for example, the EDD could drain excess water from the upper glades into the lake, which
was purposely kept low for such an emergency (Light et al. 1989). But when the
torrential rains came in 1947, the EDD was starved for funds to pursue its flood
control program, and to compound the problem, a hurricane had formed offshore in
the Atlantic. Slowly the hurricane worked its way across the Caribbean, battering
Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, and then took direct aim at Florida. On September
17, it smashed into the mainland, with winds clocked at over 250 km h
−1
at the
Hillsboro Lighthouse. In Fort Lauderdale, the New River overflowed its banks and
whitecaps broke over downtown, flooding luxury homes on the finger isles. Saltwater
destroyed Dania’s tomato crop and rainwater drowned the orange groves of Davie
and the bean fields of Pompano Beach. Migrant workers near Lake Okeechobee
1 The Florida Everglades: An Overview of Alteration and Restoration
of floodway channels, control gates, and major levees along Lake Okeechobee’s
shores (Light et al. 1989). Construction of the Herbert Hoover Dike began in 1930
and in June of 1936, a national flood control policy was adopted by Congress (Light
and Dineen 1994; Light et al. 1995). The Flood Control Act of 1936 established the
policy that the Federal Government should:
…improve or participate in the improvement of navigable waters or their tributaries for
flood control purposes, if the benefits to whomsoever they may accrue, are in excess of the
estimated cost, and if the lives and social security of the people are otherwise adversely
affected.
Then, as if divine forces were at work to scorn the man-made decisions to excessively drain the Everglades, extreme dry spells of little to no precipitation occurred
between 1931 and 1945. This successive lack of freshwater input resulted in a lowering of the groundwater, which then allowed seawater from the ocean to intrude on
a multitude of wells that Miami and other coastal cities depended upon. In addition,
the peaty, organic-rich soils of the Everglades that once depended upon the flooding
ability of Lake Okeechobee to keep them moist were now subjected to desiccation
(Snyder and Davidson 1994). Many areas caught fire in this dried-out state and were
lost forever. The U.S. government was so focused on draining the Everglades, they
never stopped to think that water conservation should be a necessary component of
any drainage plan. In fact, structures designed to drain certain areas, thus protecting
the people and farmland in time of floods, were also depriving the ecosystem of
necessary moisture inputs during dryer periods.
Just as water conservation was being debated and proposed as part of the ongoing Everglades drainage plan in the aftermath of one of the worst droughts in
Florida’s history, the unthinkable happened. In 1947, over 254 cm of rain fell on
south Florida, more than tripling the region’s total recorded rainfall for 1945. The
Great Flood of 1947 started on March 1 when a squall line dumped a welcome
15 cm of water on the parched agricultural lands of the upper Everglades. Rain was
subsequently plentiful in April and May, and then in June became so heavy that
chairman Dewey Hilsabeck called an emergency meeting of the Everglades
Drainage District (EDD), which still had jurisdiction over a vast network of drainage canals, dams, levees, locks, water-control structures, and hurricane gates (Light
and Dineen 1994). By opening the hurricane gates at Lake Okeechobee, for example, the EDD could drain excess water from the upper glades into the lake, which
was purposely kept low for such an emergency (Light et al. 1989). But when the
torrential rains came in 1947, the EDD was starved for funds to pursue its flood
control program, and to compound the problem, a hurricane had formed offshore in
the Atlantic. Slowly the hurricane worked its way across the Caribbean, battering
Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, and then took direct aim at Florida. On September
17, it smashed into the mainland, with winds clocked at over 250 km h
−1
at the
Hillsboro Lighthouse. In Fort Lauderdale, the New River overflowed its banks and
whitecaps broke over downtown, flooding luxury homes on the finger isles. Saltwater
destroyed Dania’s tomato crop and rainwater drowned the orange groves of Davie
and the bean fields of Pompano Beach. Migrant workers near Lake Okeechobee
1 The Florida Everglades: An Overview of Alteration and Restoration