Cities bet flood-prone areas can become safe

[struggle4progress]

By Ken Leiser
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/15/2005

Dale Boggs saw his clubhouse, driving range and batting cages swallowed whole by swirling Missouri River floodwater in 1993. <snip>

Now Boggs and neighboring landowners in the Howard Bend Levee District in Maryland Heights hope seven miles of heavily fortified levee will ease worries about future flooding - and pave the way for development in the largest open expanse of flood plain left in St. Louis County. <snip>

Environmental groups and other critics liken the St. Louis region's procession of strip malls, office parks and warehouses being built in previously flood-prone fields to a game of chicken against nature. <snip>

At the request of the property owners, Human said, FEMA is considering removing much of the Howard Bend area from the Missouri River's 100-year flood plain. Part of the area will still be subject to flooding from Creve Coeur and Fee Fee creeks, but the district may pursue internal levees to deal with those problems. <snip>

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/0211438FC6B0446F8625709B0064A5A3?OpenDocument

[Porcupine]

1. Nature bats last. She doesn't care what we call it. She floods

where she will when she will. Live on the valley floor and you can expect that a flood will wander through. Live in the hills and it's slides, rockfalls and fires.

Choose your site carefully, build carefully.

[blindpig]

2. hubris. n/t