1979 Easter flood

The 1979 Easter flood was one of the most costly and devastating floods to ever occur in Mississippi, United States, with $500–700 million in damages ($2.1 billion in 2020 dollars). It was the result of the Pearl River being overwhelmed by severe rain upstream. Floodwaters sent the Pearl River 15 feet above flood stage. More than 17,000 residents of Jackson, Flowood, Pearl, Richland, and other settlements in the Jackson metropolitan area were forced from their homes. The flooding of the Pearl River placed most of the streets of Jackson, the state's capital city, under several feet of water. This flood resulted from a storm system that was the same storm system that, just a few days earlier, produced the Red River valley tornado outbreak that is particularly well-known because of the devastating Wichita Falls, Texas tornado that killed 42, injured over 1,700, left an estimated 20,000 homeless, and caused, in 1979 dollars, approximately $400 million in damages.