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The Great Midwest Flood Analysis

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The Great Midwest Flood of 1993 The natural disaster that is known as flooding has inflicted great damage on the United States for 100s of years. In terms of natural disasters, flooding causes the most damage by far. Studies conducted by the U.S. Geological has determined that flooding causes an average of well over $6 billion of damage to property and is the reason that more Presidential Disaster Declarations per year are ordered. According to FEMA (2017) from May through September of 1993, major and/or record flooding occurred across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Fifty flood deaths occurred, and damages approached $15 billion. Hundreds of levees failed along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. FEMA (2017). The Clinton Administration was in office when this disaster occurred and they took swift action in response to this natural disaster. Mr. James Lee Witt was FEMA Director at the time and his previous background in emergency management was instrumental in how he directed the agency in their response efforts during the flooding.
Presidential Disaster Declarations Because of the continuous rain fall that occurred in the summer months of 1993, states like Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, and Minnesota all received far more rain than the areas could deal with …show more content…

There will always be shortcomings and pitfalls when emergency events take place. During the 1993 Great Midwest Floods, a number of deficits were clearly made evident throughout the entire emergency response efforts. There were deficiencies at every level of government. Two of the more prominent issues involve the lack of flood insurance for most of the infrastructure damage across the affected states and insufficient floodplain management

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On February 26, 1972 the Buffalo creek community was destroyed by a terrible flood. The flood caused many tears, pain and death. In the blink of an eye, people’s lives completely changed; lives were lost, houses were gone and families were destroyed. Buffalo Creek is one of the mountain hollows in West Virginia on the edge of the Appalachians, near the Guyandotte River. The land used to grow warm green grass, but overtime the land became a dark place with debris from mine operation spills.

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In the passage from Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America, writer John M. Barry details the many complexities of the Mississippi river and juxtaposes its characteristics with many other well known rivers in order to communicate and share his fascination with the river to the audience. One of the most stand out ways in which writer John Barry conveys his fascination with the river to others is through intense description of the many complexities of the Mississippi river. Rather than simply stating the flow of the river, Barry opts to incorporate words such as “extraordinarily dynamic combination” and “tremendous turbulence” to paint a vivid picture in the reader’s minds. Barry’s word choice in describing

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It had so much damage that there were 300 people who died from the disaster. The water covered 17 million acres causing 236 million dollars’ worth of damage. It was a strong flood, “it was like facing an angry dark ocean. The wind was fierce enough that that day it tore away roofs, smashed windows, and blew down the smokestack- 130 feet high and 54 inches in diameter- at the giant A.G Wineman & Sons lumber mill”

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There became an obvious need for immediate assistance from the National Guard and the Active Duty Army to stop looters, crime, and other chaos that ensued shortly after the flood. Gaining assistance from state controlled National Guard units was not overly difficult. Unfortunately, use of Federal soldiers comes with the stipulation that “the Governor of the affected state must request use of the resources of the DoD”. (Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance) The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco and her staff were already failing to control and lead emergency efforts.

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In 1882 came the most destructive flood of the nineteenth century. After breaking the levees in two hundred and eighty-four crevasses, the water spread out as much as seventy miles. In the fertile lands on the two sides of Old River, plantations were deeply submerged, and livestock survived in

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Every time a flood would occur it meant it had to be fixed at high costs immediately or more water would be wasted. For all the money spent on flood repairs agribusiness would pay off and provide a high income for the City of Yuma. It is said that $2.8 billion came from agriculture and similar industries. If you were to split them up, $2.26 billion came directly from agriculture and irrigation. More money and business meant Yuma began to grow and needed more people to work in agriculture and jobs related to it, one in four jobs were in agriculture.

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In 1983, representatives from regional planning commissions, parishes, municipalities, state agencies, and the private sector met in Lafayette, Louisiana. There they discussed the need for an organization focusing on flood damage reduction issues, the potential for success, and the goals of an association. As a result of this meeting, the first conference of the Louisiana Floodplain Management Association was held in Lake Charles, LA in 1984. After voting to formally organize; the participants established a constitution, bylaws, and a set of policies. Here is a synopsis of those established policies: Encourage plans, projects, and legislation for flood damage reduction in Louisiana; support comprehensive floodplain management; will work for free and open exchange of scientific information to the public and decision makers; provide and promote training and

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Links to an external site. . More than 23,000 square miles (60,000 square km) of land was submerged, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and around 250 people died. However, after several months of heavy rain caused the Mississippi River to swell to unprecedented levels, the first levee  (Links to an external site.)

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Uncertainty is what is left because it’s a long process of rebuilding, not only that but to see what used to be home now is gone and have to start from zero. After, the impact there is many rescues done as well as evacuations, the flooding caused massive destructions (“Federal report shows punch of last year 's Hurricane Harvey”, 2018). Another Hurricane that impacted U.S. was Hurricane Katrina which hit August 23, 2005 – August 31, 2005. The destruction was largely

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