SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Mississippi Flooding: Time to Give Water Its Space
from the Seattle Times
A rising Mississippi River has forced hundreds of residents from their
homes in a surge of rainwater and snowmelt that has been predicted to break
records dating to 1927.
And last week, the Army Corps of Engineers pulled a trick it had not been
forced to use in nearly 75 years: It blew open a two-mile run of a Missouri
levee, sacrificing about 130,000 acres of farmland and 100 homes to save the
town of Cairo, Ill.
The dramatic trade-off "reactivated the flood plain," in engineer-speak.
It also highlighted limitations in the long-term strategy of hemming in
rivers with levees and dams, then pushing farms and towns up against the
river walls.
Read more...
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