Editorial: Water, Water Everywhere…We’ve Heard It All Before

What do Mother Nature, a mad dog and a Hollywood movie star have in common? You never know what to expect from them.

When you want to know what Mother Nature will conjure up next, you can pick your druthers—name your own poison, so to speak. This week, it happens to be flooding.

As of May 9, the Associated Press quoted authorities, who said, “Flood water topped at least 20 levees protecting low-lying communities along the Missouri River and other nearby streams.” The huge weekend storm system that devastated Greenburg, Kan., with a deadly tornado closed highways and sent thousands scurrying for high ground. President Bush visited Greenburg to survey the damage. Disaster areas have been declared all over the place.

The Missouri village of Big Lake, a community of 150 permanent residents, literally became one. It was inundated Tuesday after nine levees failed. One county official said it looked like the entire town would be a loss. At the small unincorporated town of Levasy, Mo., upwards of 400 residents had to be evacuated Wednesday as the river rose. At the town of Mosby, 20 miles northeast of Kansas City, two-thirds of the town was already under two to four feet of water by Wednesday. But this is just the beginning—just a hint at what reports will reveal during the next few days and weeks.

The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that parts of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas received four to eight inches of rain in a 24-hour period. There was also flooding in Oklahoma, where one death was attributed to the high water. High water in western Iowa had begun to recede Wednesday.

Floods, like fires and death, always make the news. All may be similar in nature, but the disastrous results and financial impact involves many new victims as well as “repeat customers.”

And as the Capital Journal at Pierre, S.D., noted, flooding does not always have to do with rain. In 1952, Pierre and some other Missouri River communities experienced the first in a “line of horrible blizzards.” The city realized 75.8 inches of snow that winter, compared to an average snowfall of 27 inches. The depth of the snow wasn’t the problem. It was the temperature that spring. The snow melted quickly before the ground could thaw, and the runoff overflowed into the Missouri. (Details appear in the book Pierre Since 1910 by Harold H. Schuler.)

A few years ago, flooding occurred in areas of eastern South Dakota where only dry lakebeds existed. Out of nowhere, lakes appeared and began to spread. Some farms were inundated and still are, but the fishing is said to be good. A decade or two before that, drought struck and the Missouri shrank to a trickle in the Dakotas. Some docks were upwards of a mile from water.

When floods occur, or are expected, usually only a few days of warning are given. The Bible said God gave Noah ample time to build the ark. No such lengthy warnings now. But we do have the advantage of beneficial Corps of Engineers prognostications and flood-control projects. We also know that more floods will occur in the future.

Even as this is being written, the final chapter of the current flood story is still developing, and all we can do is watch. At one end of the flood-prone area victims are beginning to see the ebb; some are bailing out and shifting into recovery; others are thanking their lucky stars. In other locations potential victims are filling and placing sandbags in hopes of avoiding serious damage. As with most of Mother Nature’s tantrums, we’ll know the results soon enough.

In a few days, the questions about whether or not the levees were high enough or strong enough will be answered.

The story doesn’t end at the confluence with the Mississippi, of course. The water has to go somewhere, and it does, right into the Father of Waters. St. Louis has closed some floodgates but expected no serious flooding.

The NWS predicted that, the river would go above flood stage—32 feet on the Cape Girardeau gauge—sometime Friday morning (May 11). Barring heavy rains upstream, which could be worrisome, the river should stay well below the 45.7 feet that it reached in May of 2002. That was a little more than two feet below the record set in 1993, the Southeast Missourian reported.

Asked about what the river would do, Larry Dowdy of the Little River Drainage District, said it best. He told the Cape Girardeau newspaper, “We’ll watch and wait. That’s all you can do on a deal like this.”

And that, WJ readers, is exactly what we must do—watch and wait.

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