River Flooding...

So I assume most of you have heard about (or maybe experienced?) the major flooding that has occurred in the mid-west over the past week or so.

First, Lake Delton, near the Wisconsin Dells, broke through the dam and emptied into the river, taking houses with it.




Then, just yesterday really, the Cedar River in Iowa crested and broke through levees and flooded Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My wife has family in that area, who are fine as far as we know.



Everyone is blaming this on global warming (just like they blame every drought on global warming as well). They are acting as if this hasn't happened before, or at least hasn't happened this badly.

Which is bull. In 2004 the Cedar River flooded Austin, MN. There have been really bad floods in the recent past on many different rivers.

Which brings me to 1955... when the Farmington, Housatonic, Naugatuck, Quinnebaug and Connecticut rivers all crested in mid-August and caused about $350,000,000 worth of damage, and pretty much caused the economic depression that the Naugatuck river valley area (where I live) is only just getting out of. The Waterbury Brass Co. had $15,000,000 worth of damage to several plants along the river, and basically never rebuilt them, taking away the jobs of many people.



You can read all about it at this link from the Hartford Courant. Lots of pictures, some video...

Now their are a system of lakes and dams on the streams and rivers that feed into the major rivers in CT (and up into MA as well) that help to keep the rivers from getting that high. They are built and maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and many have biking and hiking trails, swimming areas, picnic areas and other recreation activities.

So... this happens. It's bad, it's hard, it causes loss of life, and we shouldn't forget that, and we should do what we can to help those who had to go through this. But it isn't global warming. Just nature.