According to the pundits, in this case, the newscasters, city mayors, councilmen, engineers, etc., our annual flooding throughout much of the country should now be accepted as the new way things are. They evidently accept it, and they want the rest of us to accept it too.
We build dams, levees, diversions, and fill sandbags to control floods. I get tired just watching it on TV. The photo by the way, shows the water approaching my garden and eventually swallowing it, where there never has been water before. The cottonwoods have stood in three feet of water for three years...they are dying. Last year I saw a piddling of green growth on about four trees. That water, folks, came from somewhere else. In other words, "It came down on me." Which is how flooding works: It starts at the very source and finally ends in the ocean, flooding and causing heartache on untold numbers of people on its way.
So, do we really have to accept what the Powers-that-be say? NO! A resounding NO! Anyway, aren't you volunteer sandbaggers getting tired of this shit? Flooding will never be controlled until the problem is approached at the source. And what is that source?
Out-of-control drainage for agribusiness and other development. Oh yeah, I did hear that drainage of wetlands has slowed down, but what about all the prior decades of drainage? Some people say "We had floods in the 1800s too!" That's true, before white man really had done much ditching. Well, folks, that was nature at work. Back then water stayed where it was until it got full, then it would just overflow and hightail it to the river through natural channels.
Today we have something that didn't exist in the 1800s. We have gazillions of miles of roads (barriers) and ditches on both sides of those roads (containment ponds.) But before all those roads and ditches can be used for that, those wide open ditches that drain agricultural land need to be closed with culverts and traps. If the water is held on the farmland even for a few days--and I mean "all" farmland--and then released slowly, there need never be another flood, nowhere in the country. Sure a temporary inconvenience for Agribusinessmen, but what about all the inconvenience and damage to homeowners and cities in the floodplain? I suspect they're getting really tired of having to fight unnecessary floods year after year after year.
Here's an annoying fact: The rain and snow that falls far into Montana, at the head of the Missouri River, will eventually contribute to flooding in Mississippi and Louisiana, and any moisture falling east of the continental divide in North Dakota will eventually contribute to flooding on the Red River of the north. My god, you say, that one drainage ditch I have contributes to flooding? Sorry, sir, but Yes.
So how could the water release be controlled? I'm pretty sure a satellite could be parked directly overhead of all the drainage basins for the rivers that flood. The satellite with its state-of-the-art cameras and computers could tell us what fields to drain first. A computer operator sitting in a dry office--hundreds of miles away--could send a signal to the culvert and begin the release, just like drone operators control killing of terrorists half way around the world.
Here's another annoying fact: That trap in the culvert would have to be locked (computer-controlled) so the land owner couldn't cheat. I remember a neighbor actually using dynamite to blow up a county road to get rid of his water faster, which, of course, just sent that water streaking toward his neighbor to make his flooding worse. But that's how floods work, folks, it's neighbor's water coming down on neighbors until it reaches the flood plain and wants to spread out, what water has done naturally since time began. Unfortunately, we have now built cities and beautiful homes on the flood plain.
Sure, setting up such a satellite and computer process could take time and be expensive...but wait! More expensive than building dams, diversions and levees...and the continual fighting of unnecessary floods?
I wish some people smarter than me would take a look at this idea. And it's possible somebody will, as I place my posts on Facebook, where each friend can share with possibly hundreds of other friends; I also use Google+ and Twitter, where it's possible to get retweeted. If this idea is totally unreasonable and unworkable, it would be nice to know why...?
Thanks for reading
Author’s notes
(Digital downloads and paperbacks vary in price)
In my fiction I do not try to create super-heroes, but rather bring alive common and regular people who try to find love, survive, and react to circumstances as best they can, and, usually, try to do the right thing. The books are more than one genre, from war to sex and violence to romance to humor to horror to fantasy to science fiction to adventure, I write in third-person with viewpoints by men, women, and children.
Contact
nelsonjamesw@hotmail.com email
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GW465S Author page at Amazon
http://morninginapril.weebly.com Website & Blog
https://www.facebook.com/#!/ Facebook
http://subron7.hubpages.com/ HubPages
https://twitter.com/PMGOLD Twitter
Feel free to contact me. (Response is not guaranteed) (The world is full of psychos and wackos)
A reminder for when you go to Amazon to read digital books, mine and many other authors: Amazon has a free APP download that allows you to read your book on any electronic device, including PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
Prices vary from $0.99-$4.99 for digital; $10.00-29.95 for paperback
Occasionally I list one of my books as free for a day, sometimes more than a day. Look for those announcements on my blog, HubPages, Twitter, and Facebook
One last thing: When you visit my website, please check out the Freebies page.
No comments:
Post a Comment