Repeat floods' warning: Are we prepared?
A wild ride through the whims of northern Illinois weather has left many of us weary, without power, suffering damage to homes and property, and, once again, facing overflowing waterways.
Our struggle -- overwhelming for those who have faced flooding three times in less than a year -- is a challenge that causes great stress, expense and, sadly, even loss of life. Those of us who live in northern Illinois have a sense of what flood victims in Iowa, Wisconsin and southwestern Illinois are enduring as they face massive devastation wrought by rising waters that have destroyed whole towns, farms, roadways and more.
There is also worry that "that could be us" as we continue to keep a wary watch on our waterways and the dams that control them. Barring any change in the situation that might have occurred overnight, it appears the Chain O' Lakes, Fox River and Des Plaines River soon will crest without further damage. But, as shown by last week's worried scrutiny of a Wisconsin dam that threatened to fail and send a torrent of water our way, we are linked to our neighbors. Their dam's breach could be our destruction.
Equally clear for all of us is how essential it is to ensure our infrastructure -- be it dams, bridges, highways, rail lines, sewers and the like -- be in tiptop condition, able to weather the worst conditions. The question is: Are they?
Revelations after the Minneapolis bridge collapse last August revealed many of our nation's bridges had structural defects or dated inspections, knowledge that is certainly not reassuring for lesser-priority infrastructure. To have multiple dams fail or be near failure in Wisconsin and have multiple levees fail along the Mississippi is even more worrisome.
We urge state and federal authorities, including the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Army Corps of Engineers, to take extra steps to ensure the integrity of those vital structures across our state and nation.
The concern has grown as we seem to face those 100-year storms far more frequently than that once-a-century mark. Although many of our communities have made great strides in easing development's impact on our environment -- a great improvement over the days of unbridled growth in flood plains -- this latest round of flooding should prompt all to revisit and review to be certain we are doing all we can to ensure good storm water management. That sounds like a phrase to make your eyes glaze over until you're the one bailing out your basement or, worse, fleeing your home.
When we pave over the land that acts as a natural sponge for floodwaters, that water has nowhere to go but to already overflowing rivers and tributaries. We've all seen the damage when those waterways overflow. To avoid repeat scenarios, we need to make sure our infrastructure is sound and we need to step up environmentally sensitive planning between not only villages and cities and counties, but also between states. Storms know no geographic boundaries.