In 1938 between 250 and 300 people lived in Andalusia. Around 1,200 people live there today. Andalusia is close to the Quad Cities and is nestled between the high bluffs prevalent on the Illinois side of Pool 16 and the river. It’s a picturesque riverfront town set back from the flood-prone river with neat, well ordered houses and a marina. The town was an agricultural outpost and, like many river towns in the area before the invent of plastic, was home to a burgeoning mussel-shell button industry.
Like many small riverfront towns on the Upper Mississippi, Andalusia exists behind a levee. In 1965 flood waters devastated Andalusia. They came again in 1969. The Army Corps recognized the increasing inevitability of flood on the Upper Mississippi and prepared plans to build a mile and a half long levee separating Andalusia from the river. “The good guys wore the white (hard) hats. And rode black trucks instead of horses” wrote Peggy Plog in the Rock Island Argus. The levee was completed in 17 days, nearly encircling the town. Max came to Andalusia in 1966 and remembers the Village before the levee. “There was an old guy who had a shack there. There was a huge pile of trash next to it. I bet that all washed away.”
Levees are engineered to keep the land on the “dry” side beyond the 100-year flood line - with a few feet to spare. That term “100-year flood line” is confusing. It absolutely does not mean that flood waters will only come once in a century. It means that when the Army Corps, town planners, and mortgage insurers look at past records and make their best, calculated assessments, they believe that there is a one percent chance that a flood high enough to breach the levee will occur each year. It’s a gamble based on percentages and chance. It’s a hedge against the house, which usually, eventually wins.
