Flood Waters From The Mississippi River example essay topic

"When flood waters from the Mississippi River and it's tributaries surge down the river the volume of water is physically impossible to contain. In general, there is just to much Water!! "The "pools" behind the navigation dams have no effect in preventing or causing floods. Like a bathtub it doesn't matter if the pools are empty or full when the floodwaters come.

Within a very short time the excess water can create an over flow (Army Corps of Engineers)". What is a Flood? A flood occurs when water is poured over the land and the ground and rivers cannot cope with it (Waterlow 8). Once a basin has filled, water will overflow its rim and resume it's downward progress. "Gravity ensures that water must drain the land into the sea (Allaby 12)". When snow melts from a divide it is joined by more snow, and it will eventually reach the low lands.

Hills down below will also shed water into the same low lands and if there is enough of this it can result in a flood (Allaby 12). The Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio drain an area of 1,243,700 square miles, this goes from the Rocky Mountains to the Canadian boarder and Pennsylvania (Allaby 13). All of this watershed result in floods each year the snow up north melts. How a Dam Affects Flooding dam is made to make pools at least 9 ft. deep so that barge traffic can navigate freely through out the river. A lock is made so the barges can move from one pool to another (Army Corps of Engineers). The combination of these two make up a lock and dam system.

Between St. Anthony Falls, MN, and Granite City, IL there are 29 lock and dam systems. It is said, in the beginning of this page in fact, that dams do not control flooding. Dams weren't made to control floods and they never will, because floods are so unpredictable and so uncontrollable (Army Corps of Engineers). What is a Dikes dike is an embankment built to control or hold back the water of a river, stream, sea, etc.

(Waterlow 25). In building a dike you can use sandbags, dirt, or both put together. You will build up a wall, getting it as compact as possible, as high as you think is needed to hold back the floodwaters. In the Netherlands farmers have used dikes to protect their farms from floods for hundreds of years (Waterlow 25). In the U.S. dikes help control flooding up and down the Mississippi.

Some dikes are so wide and long that the cities have roadways on top of them. The whole dike system in the U.S. alone is longer then the Great Wall of China!! (Waterlow 25). Cost of Floods The flood damages in the U.S. have been on the rise. They have raised at least $5,000,000,000 a year. In the Flood of '93, on the Mississippi, the cost of the flood was devastating, totaling $6,500,000,000 (Schildgen 2).

In the Red River Flood of 1997 in Manitoba the cost was estimated at $400,000,000. If the government were involved in preventing floods people would feel safer at the attack of a flood. Soon people would build better and more expensive buildings by the water therefore resulting in more expensive damage because the buildings were more expensive (Taylor 1). Since the '93 flood the floods following have been extensive and expensive.

Since the '93 flood the total cost has been $13,500,000,000 (Christen 1). But yet the Army Corps of Engineers boasts that it's dams and 8,500 miles of dikes have saved $387,000,000,000 in damages to towns and cities since 1928 (Schildgen 2). During the years 1906 and 1985 the Federal Government has gotten involved in countless flood control projects however the Gross National Product percentage seems to stay around the 1.1 percent range (Taylor 2). Everybody assumes a little risk in his or her life. When driving down the highway you pick up a little speed and associate it with the risk of getting into a car wreak, but that is a risk you are comfortable with.

Then the manufacturer installs anti-lock breaks so you drive even faster. What this scientific researcher is trying to say is, no matter how much someone tries to make you feel safer the risk is still high and is Reference ListAllaby, Michael. (1998). Floods. New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc. Army Corps of Engineers.

(2001, November 20). Off of a wall in lounge. PamphletCristen, Kris. (1998, July). Recent Floods Compel Harder Look at Floodplain Control Efforts.

Water Environmental & Technology vol. 10. p. 7. Schildgen, Robert. (1999 May / June). Unnatural Disasters. Sierra vs. 84 pp. 48- 57. Taylor, Peter S. (1998, February 13).

Money Over the Dam. Canadian Business vs. 71 p. 18. Waterlow, Julia (1993). Flood.

New York, NY: Thomson Learning against your odds.