Flood Zones and the Levee System in Crittenden County, Arkansas

Why the 1927 flood still shapes flood policy here today

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 remains one of the most destructive river floods in United States history, overwhelming the patchwork of local levees that existed along the lower Mississippi at the time and displacing hundreds of thousands of people across several states, Arkansas among the hardest hit. In direct response, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928, establishing the Mississippi River & Tributaries project -- a coordinated, federally engineered flood-control system built and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the oversight of the Mississippi River Commission, rather than leaving levee construction to disconnected local efforts.

Crittenden County, sitting directly across the river from Memphis, is protected by a segment of that same mainline levee system today. This isn't ancient history with no bearing on a modern land purchase -- the levee's design standards, maintenance obligations, and the very existence of a coordinated federal system all trace back to the policy response to that 1927 disaster, and they continue to define how flood risk is managed along this stretch of the river.

Levee protection changes flood risk -- it doesn't remove it

Land protected by the mainline levee sees dramatically less frequent flooding than it would without the system, and that protection is a real part of what makes Crittenden County's Delta farmland reliably farmable and buildable. But a levee is an engineered structure, not an absolute guarantee: extreme high-water events can test or overtop even a well-maintained levee, and land sitting on the river side of the levee -- sometimes called batture land -- generally receives no levee protection at all and floods as part of the river's ordinary high-water cycle.

FEMA flood-zone mapping in leveed areas reflects this nuance: land behind a levee that meets current federal certification standards may be mapped in a lower-risk zone than land that isn't protected, but a decertified or aging levee segment can change that determination. Never assume a parcel's flood-zone status from its general location in the county -- pull a current, parcel-specific FEMA determination.

What to check before buying river-adjacent land here

1. Get a current FEMA flood-zone determination for the specific parcel, not a general assumption based on its distance from the river or its position in the county.
2. Ask directly whether the parcel sits within a local levee district's boundaries, since a levee district can carry its own assessment or maintenance obligation separate from county property taxes.
3. If the parcel sits on the river side of the levee (batture land), understand that it likely receives no levee protection and floods as a normal part of the river's seasonal cycle -- confirm this distinction explicitly rather than assuming all land "near the levee" is protected.
4. Ask whether the specific levee segment protecting the parcel is currently certified under federal standards, since a decertified levee can change flood-insurance requirements and FEMA zone mapping even if the physical structure is still in place.
5. Factor flood insurance cost and availability into your overall budget for any parcel behind the levee, especially if you plan to finance the purchase, since most lenders will require it in a mapped high-risk zone.