REVEAL, a NPR radio show produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, has a new episode out on levees and people who live along the Mississippi River. Pinhook is featured in the show. Take a listen to hear Debra Robinson Tarver and others talk about their experience of being displaced by the Birds…
Pinhook Residents Get Houses Seven Years After Levee Breach
Yesterday, Friday, April 13th was a day displaced Pinhook residents had been waiting for for seven years. Yesterday their new houses in Sikeston were dedicated and the keys were handed over to them by representatives of Mennonite Disaster Services, who with Catholic Charities and Amish workers built the new houses for free. We all have…
Displaced Pinhook Residents to Receive Financial Assistance Six Years After Levee Breach
Please read this article from the Southeast Missourian discussing government assistance that will finally be provided to displaced Pinhook residents. Unfortunately, this assistance will not allow for the rebuilding of the town of Pinhook. Residents will be helped in rebuilding their homes individually — not as a community. It is a bittersweet ending to the saga of…
Pinhook Choir Performs at 2016 Pinhook Day
Members of the Pinhook community have been working for years to relocate and rebuild their town. Faith has played an important role in sustaining them as they’ve engaged in this effort. Below are videos of the Pinhook Choir performing as they do every Pinhook Day Weekend, offering thanks and praise and making a joyful noise…
Five Years is Too Long
It’s a story I must have told a hundred times by now: a small black town in southeast Missouri, a record breaking flood, a floodway that had only been operated once before, a federal agency just following orders, and the devastating destruction that followed a breached levee. Every time I tell it, whether to a…
Read Article on Pinhook, Mo and Vallmeyer, Ill
In October, as part of the Greater St. Louis Humanities Festival, a program was held to discuss the towns of Pinhook, Mo and Vallmeyer, Ill, both devastated by river flooding. You can see the entire panel discussion, which included representatives from both towns and was moderated by Matt Meacham of Illinois Humanities (seated center), on…
Displaced Pinhook Residents Witness Demolition of Remaining Town Structures
Displaced Pinhook residents came out yesterday to watch work begin on the demolition of the remaining structures in their destroyed town. Pinhook, which was devastated over four years ago by the operation of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway, has remained uninhabited. Residents are currently seeking to purchase land outside the Floodway so that they can…
Four Years Later: Pinhook Residents Gather for Homecoming
Displaced Pinhook residents gathered once again this past Saturday to celebrate community, faith, and family. The festivities were marked by a fishing contest, games, singing, and home-cooked food. Residents continue to work towards the relocation and rebuilding of their town, but four years after the intentional breaching of the Birds Point Levee, governmental financial assistance…
Three Years Ago Today
It has been three years today since the US Army Corps of Engineers breached the Birds Point-New Madrid levee, destroying the town of Pinhook, Mo. To this date, no federal, state, county, or local financial assistance has been provided to the displaced residents of the town. But the struggle is not over. Residents continue their…
Pinhook Documentary Premieres at University of Missouri
Taking Pinhook, a new documentary about Pinhook and its displaced residents, was screened for the first time last night at an event that was part of the University of Missouri Black Studies Department’s Black History Month Series. Several displaced Pinhook residents were in attendance including Debra Tarver and Aretha Robinson. They answered audience questions following…
RebuildPinhook.org 