FLOODING IN ST. PETERS, MISSOURI.... 2008
(Photo and text, courtesy of The O'Fallon Observer.)

WE PUBLISH THIS PHOTO AND ARTICLE TO REMIND PEOPLE THAT THE PREMIER 370 DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, LONG PROMOTED BY POLITICIANS IN ST. PETERS, IS A CONTINUING PROBLEM AND COULD BE A DISASTER FOR TAXPAYERS.
***********************************

It’s called the Floodplain because it’s plain that it floods!

There are only two kinds of levees. Levees that failed and levees that will fail.
Nature’s Message: Everything in a Floodplain will be at risk!

The billboard statements seem to contradict the mantra of the development community and government officials. “Growth at any cost” is the battle cry of municipalities like St. Peters, St. Charles and others along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers developing the floodplain. Hundreds of miles of levees have been built along the rivers since the 1800’s, by farmers wanting to reclaim the rich soil of the flood plain then by developers wanting to cash in on city expansion. Almost 30,000 homes have been built on land that was underwater near St. Louis in 1993. (Reported by the Wall Street Journal)
Environmental experts like Bob Chriss of Washington University in St. Louis and Tim Kusky of St. Louis University argued that the building of levees has forced river waters higher, compounding the damage and flood force.
“Eventually some of these levees are going to fail. The question is when, not if,” Kusky was quoted as saying.
Through the 1900s, the Army Corps of Engineers built many of the flood control structures, and then turned them over to local committees to manage and maintain.

This patchwork system was also blamed for some levee failures in the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.
“No levee can protect against all events,” said Davis Busse of the corps St. Louis offices in broadcast remarks.
Mark Twain, who took his pen name from working as a Mississippi River pilot during the 1850s (his name meant a certain river depth) gave his own commentary about the committees that even in his day were failing to hold off the river.
“Ten thousand river commissions ... cannot tame that lawless stream, cannot curb it or define it, cannot say to it “Go here,” or “Go there,” and make it obey; cannot save a shore which it has sentenced; cannot bar its path with an obstruction which it will not tear down, dance over, and laugh at,” he wrote in Life On The Mississippi.

Remember: The Mississippi Watershed starts in Minnesota and ends in the Gulf of Mexico – how many rivers empty into it on the way down?

Despite the rivers long history of refusing to be tamed, developers and politicians continue their costly attempts. Locally, many are blaming the 1600 acre St. Peters Lakeside 370 floodplain development. But according to officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the St. Peters project is a drop in the bucket.
What is having a dramatic effect on flood levels is the combined acreage protected by hundreds of miles of levees newly constructed, rebuilt or reinforced after the 1993 flood. A fact environmental groups have been trying to get officials and developers to understand for years.
Others blame the floods on global warming and changing weather patterns even though the rivers history would indicate otherwise.
The Mississippi River has always been a threat to the security of the valley through which it flows. Garciliaso de la Vega, in his history of the expedition begun by DeSoto, described the first recorded flood of the Mississippi as severe and of prolonged duration, beginning about March 10, 1543, and cresting about 40 days later. By the end of May the river had returned to its banks, having been in flood for about 80 days.
Floods of 1849 and 1850, which caused widespread damage in the Mississippi River Valley, revealed the national interest in controlling the mighty river.
In 1882 one of the most disastrous floods ever known devastated the entire delta area. The losses were appalling. During that flood there were hundreds of crevasses and oxbows formed, and the outlook for a permanent solution to flooding in the Mississippi Valley was disheartening.
Major floods again occurred in 1912, 1913, and 1927. The flood of 1927 was the most disastrous in the history of the Lower Mississippi Valley. An area of about 26,000 square miles was inundated. Levees were breached, and cities, towns, and farms were laid waste. Crops were destroyed, and industries and transportation paralyzed. Other major floods have occurred in 1965, 1973, 1993 and today.

History repeats a clear message…

One startling revelation is the quotes made during these floods are as relevant today as they were then.

These were 7,500 square miles of rushing, swirling, mud-laden watery avalanche in which Death lurked for hundreds.... Levees crumbled in the night. Frosts added their malediction. Like a surly brown earth serpent uncoiling, the great river straightened its devious winding down a crow's-flight line of 600 miles.
May 2, 1927

Up & down the ravaged Mississippi Valley last week, at least 48,000 refugees straggled back from the hills to homes and farms reeking with flood muck. Truck gardens were gone. Livestock was drowned. In 40 days, at least 4,000,000 acres of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois had suffered an estimated $500 million damage—a cost only 25% below that of TVA, and slightly less than the money spent on Mississippi flood control in the last 16 years.
Jul. 14, 1947

In New Orleans, America's most hedonistic city, the humid air last week was laden with the stench of death, the streets overlaid by a fetid crust of mud. Day after day, as the floodwaters seeped back into the Mississippi, armed police and health crews pursued the macabre task of recovering human bodies and countless animal carcasses.
Sep. 24, 1965

Enthusiastic about the success of huge, man-made walls in holding back nature's temperamental floods, an Army Corps of Engineers official said of the flood-control system on the Mississippi River: “It’s the greatest invention since women.”
Apr. 23, 1973
This statement was made just weeks before the infamous Great Flood of 1973 crested at 56.6 feet of May 13, 1973. Hundreds of levees were topped by the relentless river causing billions of dollars of property damage and crop losses. The claim is similar to the one engineers of the Titanic made before the fateful voyage.

Solution: Take FEMA out of the Flood Insurance Equation.

After the flood of 1973 the government made a promise to flood victims. The promise was national flood insurance. Federal Flood Insurance made it possible for residential housing and commercial businesses to build in the floodplain. After all, no bank will give you a mortgage or business loan unless you have insurance.
Insurance companies generally won’t sell flood insurance to those who build in flood prone areas. Where they do offer it, premiums are not affordable. But this is not a problem for those who choose to build in the floodplain because you, the taxpayer, are footing the bill for federal flood insurance. Unfortunately this program had unintended consequences. The cheap insurance encouraged more people to build in flood prone areas, so the insurance risk is now huge.

Today, $645 billion in property is guaranteed by Uncle Sam and the number is growing everyday with developments like St. Peters Lakeside 370 project.

JUNE 27, 2008 - Buildings near the Premier 370 levee are partially under water.

Food for thought:
Unusual amounts of Storm Water and Winter Snow run-off in any watershed has to have temporary floodplain storage available. How many times do we have to interfere with this natural requirement and expect different flood results?

Open Question:
When will the general public decide that corrective action is necessary and demand it?