Record Missouri flooding was manmade calamity

[wvit1001]

Record Missouri flooding was manmade calamity, scientist says





At the end of December 2015, a huge storm named "Goliath" dumped 9-10 inches of rain in a belt across the central United States, centered just southwest of St. Louis, most of it in a three-day downpour.

The Meramec's response was dramatic. Gauging stations recorded a pulse of water that grew as it traveled down the main stem of the Meramec River, setting all-time record highs in the lower basin in the Missouri cities of Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold.

Why was the flooding so bad? Most news reports blamed it on the heavy rain, but Robert Criss, PhD, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, said there was more to the flood than the rain.

"I think there was significant magnification of the flood levels on the Meramec by recent developments near the river," he said. "Sure it rained a lot, but what happened here cannot be explained by the rainfall alone."

Flooding is becoming more chaotic and unpredictable, more frequent and more severe," Criss said. "Additional changes to this overbuilt river system will only aggravate flooding.

When he did this, he discovered that the peak flood stage at Valley Park in 2015 was three-feet higher than it would have been had the river responded as it had in 1982, and more than a foot higher upstream from Valley Park at Eureka in 2015 than in 1982.

What had happened at Valley Park between 1982 and 2015? A three-mile-long levee had been built next to the river; a landfill partly in the river's floodway (as defined in 1995) had expanded; parts of the floodplain had been built up with construction fill; and development along three small tributaries of the Meramec had destroyed riparian borders, so that they became torrents after a rain but no longer flowed continuously.
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http://phys.org/news/2016-02-missouri-manmade-calamity-scientist.html

[WWV10MHZ]

Let's kill off all the people and then there would be no more worries about flooding due to human development.

[wvit1001]

or,  and this would be easier, our engineers could look at this and learn better watershed management practices. 

[D2D]

So it never flooded there before?

Ever?

[wvit1001]

couldn't bother to read the story could you d2? 



The prior flood of record in most of the lower Meramec Basin occurred on Dec. 6, 1982, Criss said. Given that the 1982 flood, like the 2015 flood, was a winter flood during an El Niño event, they should have been similar. Criss thought it would be revealing to compare them.

When he did this, he discovered that the peak flood stage at Valley Park in 2015 was three-feet higher than it would have been had the river responded as it had in 1982, and more than a foot higher upstream from Valley Park at Eureka in 2015 than in 1982.

What had happened at Valley Park between 1982 and 2015? A three-mile-long levee had been built next to the river; a landfill partly in the river's floodway (as defined in 1995) had expanded; parts of the floodplain had been built up with construction fill; and development along three small tributaries of the Meramec had destroyed riparian borders, so that they became torrents after a rain but no longer flowed continuously.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-missouri-manmade-calamity-scientist.html

[dont-blameme]

D2D floods were unheard of until man arrived on the scene there were no earth quakes or hurricanes or volcanic eruptions, the temps stayed 67 year round until man messed it all up.

[wmdn_bs]

D2D and DBM have difficulty reading for comprehension or don't believe man can exert any control over anything or have any effect to worsen calamities such as this. In other words they think everyone is as simple as they are.