Did humans have a hand in the recent flooding in Iowa and the Midwest? Yes, according to some land-use experts, who say practices such as plowing under prairies and buffer strips, channelizing creeks and streams, and installing drainage tiles in fields have enhanced runoff and made rivers more susceptible to flooding.
“We’ve done numerous things to the landscape that took away these water-absorbing functions,†said Kamyar Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa. “Agriculture must respect the limits of nature.â€
Not everyone agrees that the transformation of the landscape played that much of a role in the recent flooding. Mother Nature dumped a whole lot of rain on Iowa.
But it’s also clear that a lot of rain wasn’t absorbed or diverted and went straight into the rivers.
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I wonder if Wichita is prepared for a possible flood other than hoping the flood canal works around the west side of the city. I see there is an article about it in this mornings EAGLE which I will read at breakfast probably at the Riverside Cafe shortly.
There’s no reporting here of the duration or amount of rain preceding the flooding. Maybe the ground was saturated. That was the situation in parts of eastern Kansas.
I know there was flooding in Wichita before they built the “big ditch”…that saved us.
I really think Mother Nature has just had enough and is making an effort to get rid of us before we completely destroy the planet with our careless ways.
Unfortunately, the Mississippi River has never been a particularly well behaved river, flooding and occasionally changing course throughout history.
Certainly some of our practices have not helped the matter, as was noted, but the fact remains that the mighty Mississippi is pretty much going to do whatever it damn well pleases.
There’s also the nasty habit we humans have of building acres of asphalt parking lots.
What is this?
Nobody remember the big flooding of 1993?
Mary Caruso: Your comment that “Mother Nature … is making an effort to get rid of us before we completely destroy our planet with careless ways,” reminds me of the situation of Picher, Oklahoma, on old highway 66 in the northeast corner of Oklahoma.
For years, the Eagle-Picher company, stripped lead from the immediate area of the Picher town site and piled huge pyramids of poisonous lead slag right in the town. Related diseases were common sometimes blamed on leaching into the town’s water supply and of course air pollution.
Under pressure from the government, the Picher, Oklahoma residents finally decided to abandon the town site. So a few weeks ago, the towns people returned for one final reunion party before locking down the town.
As I understand it, that very evening just a few weeks ago, with reunion visitors still there, a mighty tornado roared through the town finally wiping the remaining town off the map for good.
I had friends in business there at one time and visited Pitcher a few years ago. If someone reading this knows more or can correct my story, please do so.
I recognize WE Bloggers might respond by saying what about Greensburg, Chapman, K-State or eastern Iowa? I don’t have answers. But the tornado in Picher, Oklahoma seemed more than coincidence.
Interesting history for Picher, Ok. The mines were worked out and supporting beams were eroded by years of water running through the mines. Washing the lead and zinc residue into Grand Lake. This was the reason there are caveins today all the way to Joplin, Missouri. The highway running through the town to four corners west of town is undermined and not safe for heavy traffic. It is now posted that way. No truck traffic.
In the 30’s it was a booming town of over 10,000 people. My uncle and his bride settled there in 1934. He talked for years about the dangers of living there now. Lead was left in the gravel used to pave roads all over Oklahoma. This lead leached into the feet of barefoot kids walking on it.
The final straw was when the kids were tested and the IQ of the group was almost 20 points behind the state median. It was then the government stepped in and bought out anyone with children under 12. This was expanded to all who wanted to move out.
Picher was dying before the tornado and was declared dead after that night.
Man left to his own devices with no oversight will damage the land. Regulations now in place would have never let this happen. This is what we need to remember when we drill for oil. Have regulations, have good oversight and follow through.
On one of the many news programs they interviews a homeowner who stated that she had lost everything that was important to her and that this was the forth time she had been flooded out. SO MOVE! Your refusal to move is causing our insurance rates to go up. This goes for the people who live on the coast of Florida or in the fire zones of California move out of harms way, and stop trying to make people feel sorry for you.
My mom worked for Eagle Picher in Joplin back in the 70s’. Being born in Neosho, there where she worked for Honeybear, the chicken plant that was eventually sold to Tyson, and her cheap female labor was replaced by…even cheaper labor.
Perhaps that is when I became a feminists, at age 7, watching my mom work two hard jobs to support her family after leaving my drunken father. She did jobs that were traditionally male dominated, and still struggled. She reeked of chicken grease, had metal shavings burned into her hands from a machine shop where she ran a grinder, and drove a fork lift at Eagle Picher. A job where a man would had been able to support the whole family.
And my babysitter lived with us, because mom worked and worked and worked. When dad would get on a drunken binge, she’d throw us in the back of her Pinto and drive us into Galena for apple bubble gum. To this day, when I smell that apple bubble gum smell, it reminds me of Ford Pintos, Galena, Juanita *the sitter*, and my drunk dad.
Maize is looking to be the next flood disaster after the wetlands is destroyed to make room for new corporate chain stores. Not to worry, the taxpayer will pick up the tab for the predicted disasters.
This song by the Rainmakers, a KC based band back in the 80’s and 90’s (and one of my favorites) gives us a look back into what it was like living around the Mississippi in an earlier day.
————
We Walk The Levee
In the ‘51 flood the river got mean
The levee broke at a town downstream
Up on our levee where the county lines meet
Caught a couple of their boys with some TNT
Something had to give and it gave down there
My thoughts are with you but my family’s here
It was you this time it was us before
Nothing’s fair in flood and war
(chorus)
And blood’s thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee
My sisters married brothers from the neighboring town
My cousin and his boy farm his father’s ground
I’m a Christian man with a bible and a gun
Just praying to God ain’t gotta shoot no one
And blood’s thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee
Now I’m just a man protecting his home
Why do I feel like a dog out killin’ his own
Itchy on the trigger, quick on the draw
Shined the flashlight in the face of a twelve year old kid
Who started cryin’ for his ma
(spoken) I told him to get on home
I saw him in church on Sunday, heard the minister speak
About Noah and the ark and the other cheek
And Jesus’ love and Judas’ kiss
I’ll think of that tonight on the graveyard shift
And blood’s thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee
And blood’s thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee
Yes we do what we gotta
We walk the levee
There is a reason we geologists refer to the area along a stream a FLOODPLAIN. The solution to flooding is simple – DON’T BUILD THERE!
I have helped win a few lawsuits based on the premise that the flooding involved was an act of man; not an act of God. We identified the parties responsible and collected from them. that is what is needed a whole lot more to deal with this mess.
Ben, in a city are “the parties responsible” those who issued the building permit?
linda – on occasion. Also, if a city does drainage “improvements” (sic) that cause flooding downstream they can be liable.
http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/waterwatch/flood/fld51.photos.html
Photo gallery of 1951 flood her in Kansas. Sometimes, it just rains too much.
My issue is when a ‘50-year rain’ creates a ‘500-year flood’
We need to replace classic Amry Corps engineering with Geomorphological engineering. Work WITH nature rather than pretending we can CONQUER nature.
Living in Miami, OK in 1951 I saw the Neosho river up close and personal when the Burlington, KS dam was breached. We had less that 2 hours to evacuate a house that wasn’t in a flood zone. Water reached the ceiling when the Kansas water hit in a wall several feel high.
The people in Iowa are probably like we were. That was my home. My dad had worked hard to build our house with the help of his dad and brothers. We couldn’t afford to abandon our homestead for better digs. It was that simple.
My heart goes out to those affected by this flood. We have taken out wetlands, Removed underbrush to look more cosmopolitan, paved over to many parks and parking lots. We are now reaping the rewards.
These are problems we can address today and do something about.
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Jack…
Nice Site. Keep up the good work….