Flooding in Mississippi basin and Manitoba

[petros]

If I knew there was going to be massive flooding from the Assiniboine 3 months ago, that means the Govt of MB and Canada knew 3 months ago and they have had 3 ****ing months to properly prepare for this.

What a bunch of lieing sacks of ****.

 

[ironsides]

Why do people insist on building in a flood plain? That is what should be stopped by the government.

 

[MHz]

The Gov build the levy system that only works some of the time, let it flood naturally, it will dry out quicker, the down side is the growing season has to be changed a little.

If the land is already that low why not trim off a foot or two (of subsoil)to build some raised areas that would be above any possible flood height, about as expensive as the old levy system, still over time reduced insurance payouts would pay for the 'changes'. A big parking lot for machinery and livestock and 'chemicals'. Building a levy that ends up being removed is counterproductive. Even some old retired barges could be anchored down so 'valuables' could be 'saved'. Climate change could be monitored by how the Ark sales were going. If the runoff would be captured in a clean state that could be pumped to the dryer areas and the Mississippi cut back to a trickle going into the GOM.
Isn't spending other people's money fun?

 

[petros]

Why do people insist on building in a flood plain? That is what should be stopped by the government.

Why do people insist on eating food from river valleys and flood plains?

 

[ironsides]

Why do people insist on eating food from river valleys and flood plains?

Land is fertile, have to plant where it will grow. Don't have to live in the flood plain though. As MHZ said, you could always build up the land a little to put a home on.

 

[YukonJack]

As I follow the news, I see reports of temporary dikes built with thousands of sandbags. I have no idea what will happen to those dikes after the threat of flooding is gone.

But to my way of thinking, they should be not only left in place, but re-inforced and made permanent, seeing that floods in Manitoba are normal and re-occur year after year.

 

[ironsides]

Not a bad idea.

 

[TenPenny]

Land is fertile, have to plant where it will grow. Don't have to live in the flood plain though. As MHZ said, you could always build up the land a little to put a home on.

Isn't being in the flood plain what makes the land fertile in the first place?

I heard a farmer talking about how fertile his land was, and lamenting the floods, and I thought, 'Here's a guy who doesn't get the big picture. If we stop the flooding, you lose the fertility that you love.'

 

[ironsides]

Isn't being in the flood plain what makes the land fertile in the first place?

I heard a farmer talking about how fertile his land was, and lamenting the floods, and I thought, 'Here's a guy who doesn't get the big picture. If we stop the flooding, you lose the fertility that you love.'

Sure is. You cannot dam up rivers and expect the soil to last forever. The floods bring in the nutrients and rejuvenate the land. Best idea is just build dikes and protect your homes and towns.

 

[PoliticalNick]

politicalnick in the days of Egypt, the flood plain brought top soil onto the desert to provide
rich land. In this case the land is also rich and harvesting can't be done because machines
bog down. Secondly farming is done completely different than in ancient times. Commercial
farming is not just about farming, its about being able to secure and maintain your markets.
The other problem is that the food supply chain demands supply supply supply and if its not
there speculators take over. From there prices rise and to make matters worse that much
saturation could well mean that the land will not able to be harvested for another year as well.

This kind of flooding now has complications for inflation, unemployment millions lost through
insurance, also compensation payments will cost taxpayers. Not to mention there will be the
problems for farmers trying to meet their bank payments and the overlaps create interest problems,
Nurturing the land is not required on the prairies as the think loam becomes a problem if it too
moist. Egypt and Canada, then and now two huge differences not at all something in common.

The point of my comparison you actually missed completely was that the flooding was an annual event. Before Manitoba and the Mississippi valley were settled it flooded every year just like the Nile. The difference between the 2 is that the Egyptians understood the cycle and developed methods to take advantage of it whereas in North America people decided to try and control nature instead of living in harmony with it and using it well like the Egyptians. It is the arrogance of the modern world thinking that humans can somehow control mother nature and we are all now paying the price every year as she proves her dominance over mankind. If we just let the natural course of the water exist as it wants to and farmed the land accordingly there would be far less problems.

 

[petros]

Sandbagging and dyke heightening could have been done a month ago. There are no excuses.

 

[YukonJack]

The point of my comparison you actually missed completely was that the flooding was an annual event. Before Manitoba and the Mississippi valley were settled it flooded every year just like the Nile. The difference between the 2 is that the Egyptians understood the cycle and developed methods to take advantage of it whereas in North America people decided to try and control nature instead of living in harmony with it and using it well like the Egyptians. It is the arrogance of the modern world thinking that humans can somehow control mother nature and we are all now paying the price every year as she proves her dominance over mankind. If we just let the natural course of the water exist as it wants to and farmed the land accordingly there would be far less problems.

Not much humans can do about tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, but floods are pretty much predictable and defense against them is rather elementary. There is ALWAYS more than sufficient warning. There is ALWAYS enough time to prepare.

Moreover, the temporary defenses can ALWAYS be made permanent.

The Winnipeg Floodway is a good example what preparedness can do to avoid disasters.

 

[petros]

The Winnipeg Floodway is a good example what preparedness can do to avoid disasters.

It's the Portage Floodway that isn't up to snuff in this situation. It was you I wished good luck to months ago inregards to this springs flooding. Either I have a time machine or it was obvious that this was coming.

This is a huge failure by MB Govt and the Feds. To say they didn't know it was coming is an outright lie and the people who weren't properly warned deserve a huge apology as well as full compensation.

 

[YukonJack]

It's the Portage Floodway that isn't up to snuff in this situation. It was you I wished good luck to months ago inregards to this springs flooding. Either I have a time machine or it was obvious that this was coming.

This is a huge failure by MB Govt and the Feds. To say they didn't know it was coming is an outright lie and the people who weren't properly warned deserve a huge apology as well as full compensation.

You are absolutely right, petros. With the unusually high snowfall in not only in the American Midwest but also in Canada, there should have been better preparation in the Brandon/Portage de Praire areas.

Let us hope that things will still turn out OK.

 

[PoliticalNick]

Well they did it on both sides of the border today. They broke through a dike in MB and are intentionally flooding 250sq KM of land and about 150 homes to save 850 homes further downstream. While the MB govt keeps saying that there will be a special program for compensation to those affected by this intentional flood they have yet to be clear as to what it is and whether it will be 100% of the losses.

In the US they opened up a spillway that will flood massive amounts of rural Louisiana to prevent flooding in New Orleans and the surrounding area. This spillway has been closed since 1973 and opening it will cost the farmers about $500 million. Now someone correct me if I am wrong but aren't there still huge areas of NO that have not benn reinhabited after Katrina, why are they saving these areas at the expense of others? Why are they saving NO at all, if people are dumb enough to build on a flood plain below sea level don't they deserve what they get in a flood?

 

[lone wolf]

You live on a tsunami-risk island.... Go figure....

 

[PoliticalNick]

You live on a tsunami-risk island.... Go figure....

I live on the stuart Channel side protected by Salt Spring Is and a couple of other minor gulf islands, I am also well above sea level. So unless that tsunami is 300' high and can go round multiple corners without disapating I am pretty safe. And if it is that big and can defy the laws of physics we are all in big f-ing trouble and I won't be worried about some damage to my home or rebuilding it amid the barren desert that is left.

 

[lone wolf]

Ever heard of venturi effect? Point is there's risk wherever you go.

 

[PoliticalNick]

Ever heard of venturi effect? Point is there's risk wherever you go.

I have seen a lot of the data relating to how much damage will occur where and I'm pretty confident we are fairly safe. We are over 200' above sea level. I have much more concern about earthquake than tsunami.

 

[lone wolf]

Yeah ... I suppose when San Andreas takes California swimming, you're pretty much seagull food too....