Some of the Midwest Flooding Should Have Been Avoided

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The rising water of the Mississippi River and it's tributaries is devastating to say the least, but some of this flooding could have been avoided, if the recommendations after the flooding of 1993 would have been heeded.


Todd Heisler/The New York Times
The Mississippi River flowed outside its banks near Meyer, Ill., after a levee breach on Thursday. More than 20 levees failed.

The levees along the Mississippi River offer a patchwork of unpredictable protections. Some are tall and earthen, others aging and sandy, and many along its tributaries uncataloged by federal officials.

The levees are owned and maintained by all sorts of towns, agencies, even individual farmers, making the work in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri last week of gaming the flood — calculating where water levels would exceed the capacity of the protective walls — especially agonizing.

By MONICA DAVEY

It's a shame that another catastrophic flood has to take place before these recommendations are mentioned again. If these levees had been dealt with right after the flooding of 1993, when those recommendations were made to have them repaired, this new flooding now may not have even happened. Now countless people have lost their homes, and livelihoods.

Crops have been lost during this time that we need them so badly, and now food prices will go even higher than they are now.

Will the government forget about this flood too? We need to remember all these things when we go to the voting booths in November. It's time the government knew that we mean business. We can't let more of our tax dollars be wasted, instead of going to causes like these levees that so badly need attended.

Some of the Midwest Flooding Should Have Been Avoided