Some Sure Ways of Preventing Local Flooding

But Wouldn’t Flood Prevention Cost Billions ?

To the contrary, on the long run and possibly very quickly, it could save billions of dollars, on a grand scale, of course, along with much suffering, inconvenience and possible loss of life. Of course, the level of monetary savings would certainly depend on the area of the country that a well planned program were to be administered. When we simply look back at the 1993 Mississippi River Flood, sometimes called “The Great Flood”, which took out many levies that had been in place for many years, flooding much of the surrounding croplands along with lost lives, untold property losses and longtime well established businesses, there is no doubt that much of our population would welcome…at least a partial solution to this disruption in our lives and some may even want to volunteer in its implementation.

Would top level government be interested in this simple plan ? It is not important for now, but if the method were implemented in a small but critical area of the U.S., and it was proved to work by preventing some level of flooding that had been a problem in the past years, then this would be a first step. From here a larger area could be selected to implement the technique on a much larger scale.

So, Just What Is This Simple Method’s Secret ?

First of all, it’s not a secret but a simple law of nature that many of us have learned in high school physics. Water will simply flow over concrete, tar and silty soil without being impeded, follow the direction of least resistance, which is downhill. This seems too simple. Well, if planning by town managers incorporate water absorbing organic materials such as foliage, dense rooted trees and heavy rooted turf that covers every available square foot of allotted acreage for a development project, heavy rains will be quickly absorbed, preventing “flash flood” conditions. Of course, this method has to be implemented in every area of a given governed municipality. Adjacent cities and towns must be convinced to follow the same simple procedures. The principle is very simple, a large volume sponge will hold a large volume of rain water, a very small volume sponge will hold little to none. If enough large volume sponges cover many adjacent areas of land, they will hold a great amount of excess rainfall. Is this a small undertaking ? The answer is absolutely no.

Is this a one time effort ? No, it is a continuing yearly adjustment of the surrounding land area. The amount of capital needed to accomplish a truly well managed flood controlled area is divided among all adjacent cities and towns and requires a vast amount of unselfish self interest planning by all participants, but not necessarily consume a huge amount of capital because any initial moneys spent to construct these “sponges” will be disproportionately returned when the future rains return and each year should improve any possible flood situation. Obviously, it cannot fully control any flooding in the first year, though in most cases downstream low lands will benefit the most at any stage of the project.