Summary Of Flood Of Memories By Char Miller

The article “Flood of Memories” covers the series of flooding that San Antonio experienced, beginning with the Flood of 1921. Miller uses his writing to convey his personal opinion as well as provide historical facts with regard to the true source of destruction. In “Flood of Memories”, Miller illustrates the racial bias and disregard for human safety in the southern and western parts of San Antonio during the Flood of 1921.
Char Miller opens his article with a recalling of an emotional event during the Flood of 1921. He describes how the showers were at first seen as a blessing. San Antonio was suffering through a drought at the time, so the rainwaters were much welcome. However, helping showers soon turned into heavy thunderstorms. Rivers

In the west and south neighborhoods, the floods were severely harsh, damaging houses and took many lives. Miller then focuses to the north side and downtown part of San Antonio, where damage was still heavy but not as many deaths as the poorer sides of town. Office buildings and various other work and bank buildings were flooded, the city as a whole suffered from heavy damage costs. In the article, it is stated “the community’s response to the critical question of how to control future floods,” (217) was a great consequence. The reason being is that this response lead to the major question, what community would undergo rehabilitation. In the best interest of politics and economics for the city, the downtown and north areas of San Antonio was chosen for the dam to protect. Although the dam prevented heavy flooding later in the years, the dam could also be considered a failure due to its high maintenance costs. The dam was built with faults that needed more care and attention to from the beginning. Char Miller emphasizes the Flood of 1921 would have been “a perfect ‘opportunity for bettering the lives and sanitary conditions of the Mexican population.’ (217)” He laments that the west and south neighborhoods in fact received little to no

However, such a reason wouldn’t explain why aid was insufficient for 50 years after the Flood of 1921. Furthermore, when aid was given, the aid described by Miller seemed to be more of landscaping along the riverside rather than preventing any sort of flooding. It is also stated that sufficient and more precise aid was not given to the west and south districts of San Antonio until there was a change in the city council. While the change wasn’t specifically described one could assume that this means the city council’s main political ideals and beliefs were shifted. Proper aid for the poor communities of San Antonio was not given until there was a change in power. A city’s economic ideals can change within a span of 50 years, which should move focus of services to different parts of the city. However, when the intent to help only a specific location of a community over another is due to racial bias, then those ideals are more evident in the inadequate aid of certain areas in the city over the span of many