Elaine Lawless, curators’ professor of English and folklore studies, described the destruction she saw in Pinhook, Mo. Small buildings were scattered about like in a ghost town, she said. There were no traces of crops. She saw high-water marks on all the government buildings.

But at Saturday’s lecture, “Higher Ground: Memory, Dislocation, Home,” Lawless spent most of her time discussing the people of Pinhook.

“Even in the midst of their dislocation and the trauma of losing their homes, they always talked about hope even in the midst of their frustrations,” Lawless said. “They relied on their faith in each other and their faith in God to get them through.”

The lecture, organized by the State Historical Society of Missouri, was a discussion of the flood that devastated Pinhook after the intentional breach of levees along the Mississippi River. The tragedy went overlooked by the media, Lawless said.

Lawless said she had only seen a short newspaper article about the breach. The piece mentioned the government’s role in the intentional destruction of the levees in hopes of saving the larger city of Cairo, Ill. It cited the flooded 200,000 acres of prime farmland. It showed a picture of a woman surveying damage.

Lawless said she instantly wanted to meet that woman after reading about her.

“Her name was Deborah Tarver, the manager of the town, now in ruins, walking near a public area that was dedicated to her father,” she said. “In that moment I realized there was something I wanted to research in the Bootheel. I wanted to meet this woman and her community.”

When she arrived in Pinhook, Lawless was surprised at what she observed: Pinhook had received virtually no aid, though other tragedies had drawn government action.

“The displaced residents of Pinhook should get the same kind of help and attention as those displaced people in Katrina, Rita and Sandy, or the people in Joplin,” Lawless said.

Todd Lawrence, associate professor of English at the University of St. Thomas and a colleague of Lawless who presented with her, expressed his anger about the situation.

“The bottom line is that all of these months, almost two years after the destruction of their hometown, not one resident of Pinhook, Mo., has totally rebuilt or rehabbed their residence with help from the government,” Lawrence said. “Nor has any money been secured to provide for the desire of Pinhook residents to relocate their entire town somewhere else.”

But Pinhook has remained optimistic, Lawrence said. The floodwaters that swept away their homes, with no warning from the government, have “only strengthened” their understanding of themselves.

It is not easy to get Pinhook citizens to speak about their problems, Lawrence said. When the town was founded in the 1930s, it was swamp land. The early citizens worked “around the clock” to build the town. The citizens are not about to complain about this hardship, either, Lawrence said. They have adopted the mantra, “We don’t quit around here.”

“They hadn’t quit in the beginning, and they didn’t intend to quit now,” he said.

At the end of the hour and a half lecture, Tarver emerged from the front row and stood in front of the room. She wiped away tears from her eyes.

“I would just ask today if you could find it in your hearts to keep praying for the village,” Tarver said. “Because it’s truly been a struggle, but it’s been a blessing too.”

Tarver, who said she does not like to speak about the town’s problems, said she is not looking for sympathy.

“I’m not a big talker,” Tarver said. “I can feed you, I can clothe you, I can do a little bit of everything, but talking is not my strong point. But when it comes to my family and loved ones, I will fight to the death.”