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Before the Flood: The U.S. spends billions on levees, but river flooding still causes havoc across the country; Vermont has a better way

Posted by: Maven on October 26, 2009 at 7:58 am

flood caFrom Miller-McCune:

“Mike Kline ambles across the highway atop the Park Street Bridge, toward the guardrail overlooking the Roaring Branch River. It’s early summer, long after Vermont’s mountain snow has melted, so the sometimes-mighty waterway is now just a stream piddling between tree-lined banks and stony riprap.

Though I can barely hear the river above the buzzing motorcycles, Kline tells me locals dubbed it the Roaring Branch for a reason: During storms, huge boulders barrel down the river, slamming against each other to produce a thunderous sound. The boulders and sediment move with so much force, they alter the landscape overnight. “It’s actually kind of scary because it’s so powerful,” says Kari Dolan, one of two Vermont River Management Program staffers along for the ride.

Kline has brought me to Bennington to illustrate what this river — with the help of human stupidity and millions of dollars — has wrought: an island. …”

What is the point of all of this?

” … Bennington’s flood-threatened bridge is a prime example of a glaring but barely addressed problem: America’s rivers flood, and in trying to protect against the threat, Americans and their governments actually make the floods worse. As a result, each year billions of dollars and several lives are lost, with many more upended. Though climate change is intensifying the crisis, at its root are outdated science, leadership deficits, decisions that prize short-term profit above all and the misguided belief that man can indefinitely restrain something as powerful and relentless as water. …”

Read more from Miller-McCune by clicking here.

October 26, 2009 · Filed Under Flood Control/Stormwater

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