In ’93, I woke up, checked the news, and heard the Monarch levee had broken.
“Poor farmers,” I thought. “That’s so sad.”
I did not know my levees. The Monarch levee protects the fine people and boutiques and gourmet food shops of Chesterfield Valley. It’s a ten minute drive from my house, and while I am sure some farmers were affected, I was far more concerned that The Smokehouse might lose its pig mailbox.
In just a few hours, the airport (one exit past The Smokehouse and Annie Gunn’s restaurant) was under water. I remember seeing a plane’s tail in the water like a shark fin.
Then next exit east? The Doubletree Hotel, and, across the road, the mall. Not our default mall, one step more upscale than ours. Still, the one with the Williams-Sonoma and the Brookstone. The flood stopped at the Doubletree.
Strangely, even though the levee had broken, the Missouri river level didn’t go down. I suppose the crest was still on its way.
That same river is going to crest in two weeks, on the 28th. A nice lady on the radio assured us the Monarch levee was rebuilt higher, stronger, we have the technology. She was confident it wouldn’t break. (As confident as the men who built the mega-strip-mall between the river and The Smokehouse. As confident as the schoolkids who painted a mural on the levee last weekend.)
She didn’t mention the recent earthquake. Levees are just a big pile of dirt. Don’t trust them.
6 responses to “1993”
the army corps of engineers should stop messing around, and people should stop building in flood zones! argh.
I feel bad for people who lose their homes to flooding once. Only once. I do like Boone’s Crossing but can’t work up too much concern for the people who decided to do business in a known flood plain.
As someone who works for The US Army Corps of Engineers, we don’t control who builds in a flood plain. We also don’t build all levees that protect flood plains; a lot of them are privately built and maintained. That was the case with the Monarch levee in 93. I can assure you that we don’t “mess around” with river engineering.
When I moved to FL, we were in the middle of a 20 year drought. Xman had the foresight to buy a topo map to check where we bought. Central Florida has a ridge – honest! Did you know that? Our house was built on that ridge and the developers kept reaching further and further into the 100 year flood plains.
Scary.
@Amy – Is there any policy or law related to people upstream who build levees, forcing higher water levels downstream?
Magpie – The Army Corp did blow up a levee recently by Cairo. I don’t know if it was one of theirs or some rogue levee. Caroline – I read a really interesting / funny article about being poor, that kind of indirectly explains why people buy houses on a flood plain. http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-being-poor/Amy in StL – All I know about levees is that out by 370 in Saint Charles someone was upset enough about it to buy a billboard to condemn levees. Never knew people built levees, always thought it was the gub’ment. I did wonder why the Monarch levee now has a cement wall, when before it was all dirt. (Did you guys build the flood wall by the arch? Kick ass flood wall.) Becs – Is it like a bowl? I still remember New Orleans is like a bowl. Caroline – I learned a lot about levees by going to Wikipedia just now. I had no idea private citizens build levees, even one over 300 miles long.