Winter Storms Flood Missouri & Region, 20 Dead.

Most of the flooding and damage has occurred in the St. Louis area....along the Missouri/Mississippi confluence, and points South of there. It will probably get worse, since the rivers are still rising as the runoff from this recent rain finds its way to these major rivers. Over the weekend, we had almost 8 inches of rain, and some places reported nearly 11 inches. This has been one strange year...weather wise.
 
So many states in America with people losing their lives and being severely affecting by such harsh weather. My hearts go out to them all, so sad, I can't even imaging such devastation.
 

Part of the problem with much of the flooding in the US especially is over building including building on what are natural flood plains. The construction equals more to displace or divert the water elsewhere. It's just like building on ocean beach. Housing built where nature hurls it's wrath about every 1/4 century or so. Cats out of the bag so the problem is now to deal with it, not reverse it. Didn't have fatalities but lived in an area that would get a 3-4 feet of water after a heavy rain. They added several small damns which slowed the water enough and kept in natural flood plains. It can rain a lot over time there isn't a problem. Rains a lot there still problems but not as wide spread. Where does one divert water in Missouri. All that low lying flat area is a natural flood plain.
 
Over the years, people have made some really poor choices regarding where to build cities, etc. A couple of hundred years ago, it might have made sense to build along major rivers...when much of the commerce was transported via boats and ship. Now, however, massive cities have sprung up along these rivers, and when something like this happens, thousands of properties are exposed to destruction. The flooding from this recent heavy storm will continue for many more days as all this water finds its way South, and any city along the Mississippi can expect to get inundated. St. Louis is a mess now, but Memphis and on down to New Orleans is probably next.

Just imagine what things will be like in another century, or two...if the predictions of rising oceans come true. 10's of millions of people will be displaced, and dozens of our coastal cities will be largely uninhabitable.
 
SW Missouri is usually not affected by these kinds of floods...although, like the rest of us, they were inundated with 8 to 12 inches of rain from this latest storm front. That area has a greater concern with tornadoes, like the massive one that hit Joplin, MO., in May of 2011. We drove through there last year, and they are still rebuilding. Central Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and even SW Missouri is called Tornado Alley with good reason.
 
So sorry for the folks who're being devasted by all these weather events! Can you imagine standing there looking at everything you own or worse, members of your own family perishing and being powerless to prevent it? The weather is pretty crazy these days isn't it?
 
Debby said:
The weather is pretty crazy these days isn't it?
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It seems that the weather is getting more extreme with every passing year....or perhaps as we age, we just pay more attention to things like that. However, more and more records fall every year...2015 is looking like the warmest year on record, since records started being kept over 100 years ago....and with that warmth the storms become more frequent, and more extreme....all the more evidence to support the theories about Climate Change. No matter how "advanced" humans may think they are, Mother Nature has a way of humbling our puny efforts.
 
Don M. said:
It seems that the weather is getting more extreme with every passing year....or perhaps as we age, we just pay more attention to things like that. However, more and more records fall every year...2015 is looking like the warmest year on record, since records started being kept over 100 years ago....and with that warmth the storms become more frequent, and more extreme....all the more evidence to support the theories about Climate Change. No matter how "advanced" humans may think they are, Mother Nature has a way of humbling our puny efforts.
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Possible our puny efforts aimed at improving life, mechanization, mass transportation, gigantic distribution of goods operations, leisure expenditure, i.e., the "Good Life", has been responsible in large part for placing the human experience at risk? imp
 
imp said:
Possible our puny efforts aimed at improving life, mechanization, mass transportation, gigantic distribution of goods operations, leisure expenditure, i.e., the "Good Life", has been responsible in large part for placing the human experience at risk? imp
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That's true...there are often unintended consequences to the way we treat our environment. Perhaps the best example in recent years was Hurricane Katrina, which caused extensive damage in New Orleans. The draining of the swamp land South of New Orleans, took away much of the buffer that would bear the brunt of a hurricane, and left N.O. sitting with its tail hanging out. If People build properties in areas that have a high risk of flooding, they will eventually have to face that issue.
 

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