Living with the consequences-flooding

Much of the northern part of the state had to deal with flooding last week and "river city" lived up to its name. Since we live close by the river, and have had some water in our basement before, and have a rental property supposedly in the flood plain, we kept a close eye on the river height and projected crest.

The morning before the river was to crest........at around 2 1/2' above flood stage, I walked over to the backyard of our rental and noted where the water was in the backyard-a heck of a long way away from the house.........now why am I paying flood insurance? At any rate, four homes behind us were completely surrounded with water-two of which had the water within 6" of their doorstep. One of these two had evacuated. The other neighbor, who I've never had the pleasure of meeting, stuck his head out the door, holding his toddler daughter in his arms. He had tied inner tubes to his makeshift porch, and put plywood across them for a boat. The following conversation actually happened. I'll call the 20 something neighbor "JR"

HR "hey, are you guys going to be all right?"
JR "whewwwy! yes sir, we'll be jis fine!"
HR "you know, uh, that they are saying it could go up another foot by Friday"
(keep in mind, it is within 6 inches of being in his front door)
JR "oh we reckon' we'll jis wait 'er out"
HR "well, I live in the red house, you come get me if you need anything-I can get a four wheel truck backed up to your door within 15 minutes-you can store your things in our barn"
JR "well, that's mighty neighborly of yas. mighty neighborly!"
HR "are you absolutely sure you'll be ok?"
JR "oh yeah, well I told my girl she could go stay at her ma's, but wants to stay here"
HR "ok, well, you come get me if you change your mind"
JR "God bless ya sir"

He's fortunate....it crested only a short time later.
Now, here is the interesting thing. Our county drainage board continues the archaic practice of clear-cutting and dredging along the river, mostly upstream of river city. It is a method practiced in only a few remaining counties in the state. A look at the history of flooding along the river in our community would indicate no flooding for a period of nearly 25 years between the big flood of '54 and a series of floods beginning in '78 until now, at intervals of six years or less-approximately 10 floods in all. I believe the practice of clear-cutting has caused much of this. Clear-cutting and dredging have the resulting effect of draining land faster, and allowing the river to move quicker. While this may sound like a good plan, the problem is that once it gets to a community the river can't carry the water fast enough, so it spills over its banks. If we clear-cut or dredge here-we only create a bigger problem for the communities and residents downstream.

This isn't rocket science here. It would be interesting to see how aggressive we have been with this practice since the mid-70's. Oh well, since it is wrapped up in politics, it will just be easier to stick our head in the sand...........bags.