A River Runs Through It

In the early 1800s, Capt. Henry Shreve (as in Shreveport) ignited a constitutional debate by suggesting that the federal government help clear old logjams from waterways like the Mississippi River. Federal, state and local governments haven’t stopped their vast interstate plumbing projects since.

Governments (and barge companies) like straight lines. Rivers want to meander, spreading the benefits of silt everywhere. Homeowners don’t see silt that way. So for nearly two centuries, at colossal cost, Americans have straightened the Mississippi and confined it behind 27 dams and thousands of miles of levees. This had the unanticipated effect of constricting the flood path of the world’s fourth-longest river system, which now must move the same seasonal flow in less space, and so run deeper.

Now, the crested Mississippi River wants to move into downtown Davenport, Iowa, because that city, alone on the upper Mississippi, refused to build a flood wall. This was at first for economic reasons and then aesthetics; at more than $200 million, river tourism is now a large part of Davenport’s once agricultural economy. Joe Allbaugh, the blunt-spoken new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has praised river neighbors who learned from previous floods and has suggested that perhaps American taxpayers ought not to pay every year for lessons some communities don’t learn.

Congress relishes a good rescue. So do presidents, and never mind the cost, because it looks great. But prevention should follow rescue. Florida and California have strengthened building codes against hurricanes and earthquakes. Homeowners in California wildfire areas must clear brush and pay extra for insurance, yet controversy still rages over how much governmental help they--and people who build oceanfront houses--should get.

Flood protection seems simple but requires fiscal fortitude after the water recedes. Some small towns have, with federal help, totally relocated to avoid drowning again. To its credit, Davenport enacted controls on new construction in the flood plain and spent $1.1 million buying 49 flood-prone houses. Maybe a levy on tourists who relish river views should finance flood recovery. Meanwhile, even Davenport schoolkids are valiantly sandbagging.

Good luck to them. And good luck to FEMA. Perhaps it’s too hard to talk accountability from atop sandbags, but at some point the message should be forcefully delivered.