Flood Cleanup in Memphis, TN

Memphis flood cleanup is defined by the overwhelming scale of the Mississippi River — the largest river in North America by discharge volume — and the city's position on its east bank. When the Mississippi floods at Memphis, it does so with the combined flow of the Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas rivers in addition to its own volume. The 1927 Great Mississippi Flood remains the most catastrophic in American history: it inundated 27,000 square miles across the lower Mississippi Valley and displaced 700,000 people. The 2011 flood, while stopped by the system of levees and flood control structures built after 1927, still reached historic levels. Beyond the Mississippi, Wolf River flooding in northeastern Memphis and Shelby County affects the Bartlett, Germantown, and Collierville communities — Wolf River channelization projects have reduced risk but not eliminated it. The Nonconnah Creek corridor in southeast Memphis floods its surrounding industrial and residential areas during major storm events, adding chemical contamination risk to standard flood cleanup.