Lessons from Disasters

Learning from the Great Midwest Flood of 1993 and the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

With the Great Midwest Flood of 1993, people witnessed firsthand the incredible power of a river out of balance. For six months, floodwaters ravaged the Midwest, killing 50 people, flooding 12.7 million households and causing about $20 billion in damage. The recent Gulf Coast tragedy following Hurricane Katrina, and later Hurricane Rita, has similarly heightened the nation’s sensitivity to the health of our ecosystems. Hundreds of people were killed and restoration efforts in affected cities and coastal areas were estimated in the billions.

A restored Mississippi River—one in which water and sediment flow naturally from its headwaters to the gulf—is critical to replenishing barrier islands and protecting coastal cities from future storms. It also ensures the river’s continued vigor, our nation’s economic vitality and the sustained health of our environment.

New Management Solutions

Such national disasters spur debate about river management and generate research and thinking about floodplain and watershed conservation. The 1993 flood, for example, set into motion a series of changes that continues to shape the debate about the Mississippi, especially as experts discuss rebuilding efforts in Katrina’s wake.

Since that epic flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, charged with managing the nation’s waterways, instituted sweeping changes in how it assesses navigation improvements on the Mississippi River, giving equal consideration to the environment when planning projects and ushering in a culture of collaborative planning and decision-making.

Guiding Management of the River’s Floodplain

Backed by sound science and encouraged by a new openness in river management, the Conservancy embarked in 2001 on an ambitious undertaking: Conserve and restore the Upper Mississippi River and its connected ecosystems.

Today, the Conservancy’s Upper Mississippi River program, which integrates work at five state programs, is engaged throughout the basin in a variety of projects. Farmers in Iowa, Illinois and
Wisconsin are working with the Conservancy and its partners to find solutions that balance economic and ecological needs.

Along the Illinois River, at the Conservancy’s Emiquon and Spunky Bottoms projects, new approaches to floodplain restoration are being pioneered. Work in the upper river is now being connected to similar initiatives focused on the lower river and Gulf of Mexico, giving shape to a program of continental scale.

Every year, floods cause untold damge to homes, businesses and lives around the world.  © The Nature Conservancy.

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The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is a harsh reminder of the unchecked power of the natural world.

The wide floodplain of the Mississippi River makes flooding a particular concern. © Robert J. Hurt

A River Converted

In Mark Twain’s day, steamboat travel along the great Mississippi River added a patina of glamour to this working river, a major artery of trade. But as the river grew in economic importance, engineers wanted to harness the Mississippi’s power, from its headwaters in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Navigation dams converted the upper stretches of the river into a series of large, open pools of water, while levees disconnected as much as 90 percent of its floodplain, especially south of St. Louis. Seasonal floodwaters could no longer spread wide, offering a nursery for fish and an expanded shoreline for birds. Today’s Mississippi is very different from the one Twain and others fell in love with—though it still sustains much of its former wildlife diversity.