"Does Anyone Care That The Midwest Is Drowning?"

[Hissyspit]

From Mark Crispin Miller:

Submitted by Rob Kall:

Georgianne Nienaber, one of our regular writers, who has done a lot
of investigative reporting from New Orleans, is, in her gentle way,
called the flooding to our attention and is suggesting we start
writing up a storm about it. She writes:

New breaches and bridge and road closings are occurring by the hour
and the pundits are worried about wasting time and energy on Bush and
Cheney. What is the matter with all of you?

Even the mainstream Associated Press is starting to tune into what
will be the most massive infrastructure failure this country has ever
faced. Meanwhile, all of the left wing pundits on these pages are so
eternally distracted by politics as usual that they are missing the
big picture. You are all fiddling the same tune while the Midwest is
drowning.

The Heartland is under siege and as usual the left is ignoring the
people who hold this country together.

There are now 33 levees in danger of breaching-up from 27 yesterday.
New breaches and bridge and road closings are occurring by the hour
and the pundits are worried about wasting time and energy on Bush and
Cheney. What is the matter with all of you?

The great experiment of journalism on the internet is one big
whopping failure as far as I can tell. Stop regurgitating
intellectual crap about politics as usual and get on the stick and
dig deep into the WHY of this story.

Did any of you go to journalism school? Who, what, where, when and why?

I'm mad and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

I will probably be fired from the masthead, but if it wakes someone
up, just one person, I will say mission accomplished.

I agree with her. Let's start talking about this. Relate it to
Katrina and New Orleans and the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the
siphoning of resources and funding to Iraq, away from the heartland.
Talk about WHO is failing to protect us, how this is as bad as any
terrorist attack. Talk about the failure of homeland security to
secure us.

Let's see a river of op-eds, diaries and articles come in. It doesn't
take much to make a story an investigative piece-- a few phone calls
to people in the area, or if you live near there, some observation,
an hour or two of digging and you have what I call a data-based
article, not just opinion. You can do this.

We are more than complainers, more than callers for impeachment. We
are the future of journalism.

And don't forget to think about and create polls. They're a great way
to start a conversation and are becoming the best way to get a lot of
comments on your content. You can make a standalone poll or embed one
in your article, in a way similar to the way you embed an image or
youtube video. Now that our poll demographic analysis is running
(click on the link to demographic stats on the poll results page) OEN
is at the cutting edge like no other site. But to make them really
work well, you have to vote in polls and fill in your demographic
information. Then, invite friends to vote in the polls.

Thanks

Rob Kall

[Acadia Blue]

1. I care. I am a Katrina person who got away with lots of property

damage from the wind. I really feel for those people and hope they get better treatment from our war driven government than we did.

[liberal N proud]

2. But the real disaster hits Iowa tomorrow

Bu$h will be in for his photo-ops with those who have lost everything.

[rudy23]

11. Get ready for the glibbest speech of all time

Let's see if he can top the "I used to get drunk in New Orleans all the time" speech, or the "9/11 ended with a big laugh for us" speech.

[tomreedtoon]

3. Many don't care. They hate their former hometowns.

For decades, those little towns have been hated. Anyone with any amount of money or intelligence do their damnedest to get out of there and to the big cities - New York or LA if they can help it.

The end of manufacturing in America, the consumption of farming by megacorporations, the age-old glamor of the Big City, and the end of civic pride in small towns has helped destroy those places. When was the last time you guys saved up for a vacation to Evansville, Indiana?

Once having escaped from these cities considered emotional and financial Death Traps, the smart and the powerful don't want to go back, except for the funerals of their parents or childhood friends. And they have given up caring that the Hannibal, Missouri water plant still needs to chlorinate the town's drinking water.

It's kind of the same vision the Democratic Party used to have before Dean's 50-State Strategy. Screw the small towns; nobody lives there any more, or at least nobody of any importance.

I don't believe this; I wish this attitude would change. But I don't see any way it can.

[harun]

4. Speaking as someone from the Midwest, unfortunately they are used to this sort of thing

I grew up living only a few blocks from the Mississippi. Floods and how to work around them is pretty standard there.

[underseasurveyor]

9. But not floods of this magnitude

While it may be 'the norm' for Mid-Westerners to know how to deal with floods this is way beyond standard.

Moreover the point is the lack of proper maintenance causing our crumbling infrastructure.

[harun]

21. I agree in that our National Guard and wealth as a nation should be

used at home where it is needed, first.

This is a case of that "Republican Optimism" they mythically talk about. Where they optimistically hope nothing will ever go wrong.

[underseasurveyor]

24. I laugh at your last sentence

Not at you nor do i disagree with that statement. I laugh not in a happy-ha ha way, but with a sick-sad irony because everything that can go wrong did go wrong under the republicans..
It's like the Murphy's Law administration and they haven't done a damn thing to make anything better, except for themselves.

cheers:toast:

[Shoelace]

14. these floods are hardly "standard"

the Cedar River was well over 12 feet higher than any historic flood level EVER!
In 1993, the flood level was over 19 feet. In 1851 it stood at 20 ft. Last week, the river crested at just below 32 feet. NOAA called it a "Historical flood with UNPRECEDENTED results"!!!

Iowa City's river crest is shown here. Record stage in 1993 was at28.5 ft.
It's well over that and going down very slowly as this graph clearly shows:



http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=dvn

So many factors to consider; the paving over of America for cars such that water has nowhere to go anymore. Old levees that needed to be upgraded years ago. Another sign of our failing infrastructure. Changing climate which is affecting the whole globe, not just the Midwest. The list is endless and anything but "standard"!

[Bucky]

5. Shhh. A new Tim Russert tribute is on TV.

And what better way to honor Tim Russert than to televise "news reporters" patting each other on the back while they ignore a major story destroying peoples' homes?

[Dogtown]

23. You dirty grave-dancer!!

:bounce: :applause: :bounce:

[OneGrassRoot]

6. Good for her. Excellent point and call to action. K&R n/t

[Shoelace]

7. I've been trying for a week to focus on this catastrophe!

as you might see in my journal not to mention the 100+ posts about that very subject. This is the 2nd Katrina with the same response. No not the same loss of life but certainly with the same catastrophic results that will hit us all squarely in our pocketbooks when we realize that so much of this year's corn, soy harvest just got destroyed (the rest will get exported!). That's one thing, the other is the 38,000 new homeless people whose homes were destroyed/damaged by these historic floods.

Another levee just broke this morning, the one they worked so hard to strengthen yesterday. From CNN, this news blurb:

The Corps of Engineers said that the levee had been overtopped, but local officials had a different account, reporting that the levee -- near Meyer, Illinois -- breached in two places, pouring water into Hancock and Adams counties.

"It's kind of a sad day," said Sheriff John Jefferson of Hancock County. "People put in a lot of manpower and all was lost."

The floodwaters will cover thousands of acres of farmland from Warsaw to Quincy -- about a 25-mile stretch of the river.

"There's a lot of wheat fields down here just about ready to be harvested, and they're going to lose all that," Jefferson told CNN. "The corn crop, the bean crop that's up is all going to be lost. And the real work's going to come after the flood recedes. It'll take years to get this ground back into shape to farm it."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/18/midwest.flooding/?iref=mpstoryview

This all started around June 6th and the president was too busy having tea with the Queen in the UK to pay attention.

We should be picking up on the fact that there aren't enough National Guard people to help out now since they and their equipment are in Iraq. A huge reason to stop that damn war!

With climate change showing it's ugly head in every quarter of the world with disasters increased by 400% in 2 decades, we will need all the hands of help we can get to fight these disasters effectively.

[bdamomma]

8. it is the failing poison of this administration that does not

deal with crumbling infrastructure of our country. They get theirs, and to hell with everyone else. Do we need anymore proof? or evidence that they just do not care.

[Aviation Pro]

10. Well, we know that Preznit Fuckstick....

...doesn't give a flying fuck.

[snooper2]

12. Why do people always add stupid shit like this...

"the left is ignoring the people who hold this country together"

There is not one region of the U.S. or group of people who "hold this country together"...stupid inane crap...

2 points for trying to bring more attention to it, but as others have noted this does happen a lot up and down the Mississippi. And yes, I was in Festus and Crystal City M.O. when the flood of 93' happened.

[Shoelace]

15. this flood is far worse than the flood of '93

see my post #14 or go to my journal for more info. Can't imagine why some folks who should know this choose to ignore it.

[snooper2]

16. In 93' half of Crystal City was under water..

Two of the rental houses my dad had were trashed...I don't think that area is under threat, yet...depends on the region. Understood upstream this is like a 1000 year flood. Need to call me sister again today and see how the creek is doing behind the house. ( A tributary to the Missisissippi )

[Shoelace]

18. hope she's ok, it's not as bad there as the '93 floods

thankfully, the worst part of these floods already happened in Iowa.
However, the Mississippi river hasn't crested yet in many areas and now they say that 33 levees are in danger of collapsing.
Here's a link to the St. Luis Dispatch which has a good article on the scope of the flooding there:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stcharles/story/908AA89093222FDB8625746C000EB456?OpenDocument

Also, you can check the river levels here at NOAA/NWS's Hydrological website, just click on the rivers nearest your sister to see the situation (so far, it's not too bad below St. Louis):

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=lsx&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6

[ColbertWatcher]

13. YES!

I posted that "Hope thread (here) in support of your thread (and basically everyone's impeachment thread)

Maybe I should have been more direct!

[Sundoggy]

17. What really irks me

is that the only thing that gets any attention is, oh my God! This means our food prices will go up! Now THAT gets their attention!

Screw the thousands of lives in turmoil. It's flyover country, right? As long as it doesn't increase the cost of someone's lunch on the coasts.

[Sewsojm]

19. Why, didn't you hear that Tim Russert died?

Come on, whats more important the Iowa flooding or Tim Russerts death, shoot the man died on Father's Day weekend to boot after coming home from a Vacation in Italy celebrating his son's graduation from Boston College.

[nadinbrzezinski]

Some of us have been trying but hey... bush final tour is more important

the posts on the midwest tend to ahem SINK like rocks...

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Some of us have been trying but hey... bush final tour is more important

the posts on the midwest tend to ahem SINK like rocks...

[Sequoia]

22. Just wait until people go to the supermarket and see the price of corn

That's when their jaw's gonna drop.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. I know, I even tried to connect them dots for some folks to no avail

or when the stories of starvation start to trickle up from places like oh Mexico, where that corn is a staple