By ALLEN G. BREED
AP National Writer
Abraham Lincoln called it “the Father of Waters”; 18th-century English novelist Frederick Marryat deemed it a “vile sewer” – long before our industrial revolution turned it into one. The American Indians, says author Lee Sandlin, imagined it as “a giant sleeping snake that would wake up every seven years and attack whoever was alongside it.”
Flowing naturally or overflowing menacingly, it is impossible to overestimate the Mississippi River’s importance to the American economy and psyche. And right now, engorged beyond the limits of our control, the river is awake and on the attack.
Says Clyde Dufour, a fish wholesaler in Simmesport, La., northwest of Baton Rouge: “The river been making our lives.” But, he adds, “It ain’t our friend right now.”