The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

near Des Moines, Iowa, leaving the city without safe
drinking water. Following the flood, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers had to inspect affected docks,
dams, and levees for damage.
The overall economic impact of the flooding was
monumental. Approximately fifty thousand homes
were either destroyed or damaged. Tens of thousands
of residents were forced to evacuate. Over fifteen
million acres of farmland and at least seventy-five
towns ended up under water. In addition, railroad
and barge traffic was brought to a standstill for ex-
tended periods. Bridges, highways, and several ma-
jor commercial airports also were shut down. Total
damage was estimated around $15 billion. Over fifty
people died in the flooding.

Impact In addition to its massive economic impact,
the devastation wrought by the Mississippi River
flood led to an extensive review and revision of the

nation’s flood-control measures. Special emphasis

was placed on the forecasting of river flows during

periods of extensive runoffs.

Further Reading

Changnon, Stanley Alcide, ed.The Great Flood of

1993: Causes, Impacts, and Responses. Boulder,

Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.

Lauber, Patricia.Flood: Wrestling with the Mississippi.

Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society,

1996.

William H. Hoffman

See also Agriculture in the United States; Natural

disasters; Perfect Storm, the; Storm of the Century.

 Mistry, Rohinton

Identification Canadian novelist

Born July 3, 1952; Bombay (now Mumbai), India

In novels describing the lives of poor or middle-class Indi-

ans, Mistr y explores the human condition.

Though he has lived in Canada since 1975, Rohin-

ton Mistry chose the India he knew in his youth for

the setting of the two novels he wrote during the

1990’s.Such a Long Journey(1991) is set in Bombay in

the 1970’s, and most ofA Fine Balance(1995) takes

place between 1975 and 1977 in an unnamed city

that resembles Bombay. Because he uses such metic-

ulous detail in describing the daily routines of his

characters and the small crises that are the stuff of ev-

eryday life, Mistry is often compared to nineteenth

century realists like the English novelists Charles

Dickens and George Eliot. Like them, he sees life as

a precarious matter.

At the beginning ofSuch a Long Journey, Gustad No-

ble, a Parsi bank clerk, is giving thanks to his deity,

Ahura Mazda, for his good health and his happy fam-

ily life. However, his older son soon rebels against

him, his young daughter becomes seriously ill, and

Noble finds himself innocently involved in transac-

tions involving corrupt government officials that

could cost him his job and even his life. Though he es-

capes, Noble will never again face life so confidently.

A Fine Balanceis an even darker novel. After fate

brings them together, the four protagonists settle

into a seemingly secure life. Though the widow Dina

Dalal still misses her young husband, her sewing

580
Mistry, Rohinton The Nineties in America

The severity of the Mississippi River flooding can be seen in this
July 9, 1993, photo taken in Festus, Missouri.(Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency)