Cairo Vs. Mississippi County

[flytyer57]

Why should Cairo get the shaft because both parties built their homes and businesses in equally bad places?

Why should the farmers get the shaft because Cairo built their homes and business in equally bad places?

It's the Cairo levee not doing it's job. Blow it.

[Kayser]

The area in MO is DESIGNATED flood control area. And besides, Cairo is not the only community on the Mississippi that will be affected by this. All points downstream, with all the water being dumped in the Ozarks and other points in the drainage area, are also in danger. Memphis is getting pretty worried about it, and God only knows what's going to happen to New Orleans if this rain keeps us. So, if you take into account that there are other areas that will be saved by blowing the MO levee, what would you do?

The River runs a long way, and it's arrogant to think that we can make this decision and only affect one tiny portion of it.

Rob

[hank franklin]

It is a seriously difficult situation down there, more rain as we speak and the Ohio at Cairo possibly on the way to topping the Cairo levee. While I have been a NO on this issue I realize the arguments for NO are getting thinner. They may have no choice.

A catastrophe anyway you look at it.

[Tim Smith]

Would you go along with a plan to flood and destroy your home and belongings in order to save the vacant lot across the street?

The bottom line is that towns shouldn't be in the flood plain.

A total of ONE town took the Feds up on their offer to move them out of the Mississippi flood plain free of cost after the '93 flood. It is just as crazy for Cairo to be at that confluence as it is for New Orleans to rebuild below sea level.

It's hard to have an out-pouring of sympathy for Cairo in that light, but homes trump farm land every time. If they think it'll do any good at all, they'll probably blow the levee.

[Justin Spencer]

I would guess the tax payer will end up paying the farmer or the towns people or both when this is finally over. Flytyer is right homeowners, businessmen and farmers should not get payments in the event of a flood in a floodplain area. Just like farmers who make money from good riverbottom I make money from my riverbottom campground and expect no help cleaning up the mess I have down here. When I bought the place I knew it would flood and I knew it would cost me money to replace things and fix up the damage, but if it wasn't for the river I wouldn't be making money in the first place. When you farm or live in a floodplain you assume the same risks and should not expect help when the inevitable occurs. I went through Cairo a few months ago and I think it could be relocated pretty cheaply and maybe the people would have some shingles on the roofs of their new houses (you can tell it was once a cool town, but now is a dump). If the levee was built to be blown in the event of huge floods then blow the SOB, and enjoy the fertile soil the flood brings in. New policy regarding federal help in flood prone areas must be written and implemented and we must get out of these areas or be responsible for our own damages.

Now please stop raining!

[ozark trout fisher]

Here is another example of you being a

Do you have anything constructive to add? A lot of folks on here are argument prone, but most of them post fishing reports and help out with advice when the opportunity arises. If you're not going to do that then why are you on here?

[Outside Bend]

The bottom line is that towns shouldn't be in the flood plain.

I fully agree, but that's not reality.

Maybe it's an arbitrary distinction, but I see places like Cairo, Ste. Genevieve, Alton, etc differently than places like the development going on in Chesterfield et al. No one built Cairo where it is because it was a cheap and easy place to build a shopping mall. No one built it there because it was a particularly nice place to live- floods, disease, and all the rest threatened the folks who lived there. People put a town at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio for the same reason they built towns up and down the major rivers- rivers were the primary travel corridors of the time. You can't fault someone for building a trading hub in a floodplain in 1830 any more than you can fault a guy for putting a truck stop on I-44 today- you have to put your business where the traffic is.

It IS dumb that people haven't learned from the last flood, and it IS dumb that people keep making stupid choices, and it IS dumb that other folks are having to pay for those stupid choices. But I also believe the time to tell your neighbor to screw off isn't while his house is burning down, no matter how stupid he may be, or how ramshackle the dwelling. It's an argument for humanity.

[Outside Bend]

Aside from above, all I'm trying to say is this:

You can claim Cairo has no business being where it is. I'd claim the farmers on the Missouri side have no business being where they are, and have no more right to stay dry than the folks in Cairo.

You can claim folks in Cairo should've known the town was prone to flood. I'd claim farmers should've known a levee designed to be blown in the event Cairo was in danger, should've known the levee may be blown if Cairo were in danger.

You can claim our chief concern ought to be restoring the natural flood capacity and ecosystem function of the floodplain. I'd fully agree, and explain that you could build nearly 50 Cairo, Illinoises on the land which would be inundated by blowing the levee on the Missouri side. We'd derive far greater benefits repatriating 130,000 acres of floodplain on the Missouri side than we would letting the 2200 or so acres of Cairo, Illinois disappear.

[Guest]

But I also believe the time to tell your neighbor to screw off isn't while his house is burning down, no matter how stupid he may be, or how ramshackle the dwelling. It's an argument for humanity

I like your way of thinking...

[Tim Smith]

I like your way of thinking...

Yeah I agree with helping Cairo. That's how I voted.

I'd also agree with giving them one last chance for assistance to move and then cutting off the Federal tap for them after that. Do we really have to bail them out every 15 years???