In the articles about all the states being flooded by the Mississippi River we noticed they said the same thing we heard in the Up a Creek movie.
One major factor at work is a seemingly innocuous one: concrete. Arthur Schmidt, a hydrologist and engineer at the University of Illinois, said paving over soil that would naturally absorb rainwater means that water has to go somewhere else — into the efficient network of drainage pipes beneath cities and towns that keeps streets dry.
"That issue of paving our towns isn't just right by the river, it's anywhere that you have a stream that eventually connects to that river, which is a huge portion of the country," Schmidt said.
Are you listening, Fort Worth? Do you see what's happening to these people? The Trinity River runs through the heart of Texas including but not limited to Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas. How many people live along this river and the tributaries? The numbers are staggering and remember, all the political promises in the world can't stop the rain. (And we wouldn't want to be standing next to one in the lightning). The Trinity River Vision is more than just a threat to your pocketbook.
An article on MSNBC might put it in perspective for you. What if it was YOUR house they were flooding to save someone else? What happens to food prices if all the farmland is flooded?
"So I guess it's all about saving the rich and burying the poor?" he asked.
In addition to threatening densely populated areas, lower Mississippi flooding was a risk for as many as eight refineries and at least one nuclear power plant alongside the river.
The Army Corps of Engineers has taken drastic steps to prevent flooding. Engineers blew up a levee in Missouri — inundating an estimated 200 square miles of farmland and damaging or destroying about 100 homes — to take the pressure off floodwalls protecting the town of Cairo, Ill., population 2,800.
Bless them all.
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