Sunday, June 21, 2009

100-Year Floods Hit Michigan - - Two Years In A Row!

The other day I put up a post about Waukesha's probable plan to dump its wastewater into Wauwatosa's Underwood Creek in order to return diverted water to Lake Michigan, and I noted that huge rain events - - including the now-not-so-accurately named "hundred-year-floods" - - seem to be arriving a lot more frequently.

Here's a fresh example from across Lake Michigan.

Waukesha's mantra about all is a their version of "Don't Worry, Be Happy," assuring people - - and especially those with basements in Wauwatosa and further downstream - - that careful work is proceeding with the DNR, that all the details will be worked out before hand, etc. etc.

Makes you think about those best laid plans of mice and men, and how they sometimes work out, aina?

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4 comments:

  1. The River OtterJune 21, 2009 at 6:48 PM

    I am worried about this complex issue too, and blogged about it myself (it raises issues of sprawl, ecology, and socioeconomic disparity as well as just "water") but the phrase 100-year floods? I just don't understand it anymore. It seems like a meaningless term now with climate change- do you know what I mean? Everything has changed.

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  2. Jason HaasJune 21, 2009 at 9:26 PM

    Two years in a row? They've got nothing on us. Last year, we had two 100-year floods within two days. Remember how it poured and poured on June 6 and 9? Lake Delton emptied itself, and many cities in Iowa got flooded a few days later, all as a result of the rains of June 6 and 9.

    I took pictures of flooded Wisconsin farmlands along I-43 and I-94 on June 12 amd 14. Many of those same fields along I-94 are now barren, or filled with water once again. And good luck getting development on that land... which would only worsen the flooding. It's a no-win situation.

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  3. James RowenJune 21, 2009 at 11:48 PM

    To River Otter: Agreed.

    To Jason: Ditto.

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  4. The River OtterJune 22, 2009 at 1:30 AM

    We were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on a band tour not long after the flooding last year and the devastation was just horrible. People told us stories that made my hair stand on end- not just of sudden destruction but of neighborly caring and mutual aid. The hospitals had been prepared for emergency situations and have to be commended for staff's quick thinking and saving inpatient lives...but it was like nothing I had ever seen before. All of the downtown was just destroyed, without power...people amazingly seemed to be making the best of it, but it begs the question: how much more of this can people handle? How much more rebuilding? Could we handle another Katrina? The Deltonites have money. Not too many people do, anymore.

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