I do feel really bad for the folks in Missouri that had their land sacrificed to reduce the flooding on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The news media has incessantly reported that the purpose of the purposeful levee breach was to save Cairo, Illinois, but it really was much bigger than that.

The reason that I believe that the Corps did it was that so many levee systems up and down the rivers were under stress already, and projected crest levels were bringing them dangerously up toward the top, that the Corps was terrified that a levee breach that resulted in a catastrophic flooding of a major urban area would revive scenes of New Orleans after Katrina. And it probably would have.

So the Corps decided that it was the safer alternative to do the planned flooding of the large bottomland than have one or more of it's levee systems fail unexpectedly, causing unpredictable damage and another black mark on the Corps' reputation. Nevertheless, this was an exercise of eminent domain - a slightly alternate version of the standard taking of property, but nevertheless, it amounts to taking property without the owners' consent. It's a very questionable power that the government has.

It is amazing and astounding to see the Ohio River at the level it is at the moment. It is blocking roads and causing all kinds of problems that haven't been encountered in our area for many decades. If, in fact, many of the bottomlands that are there to take these kind of flood waters weren't blocked off by levees, the water levels wouldn't be nearly as high. It's the tradeoff for human habitation and development.

I'm posting a few photos from the area that were taken in the last several hours so you can get an idea of how extraordinary this situation is. They will follow this post.

I'm having trouble posting photos, but if you want a birds-eye view of the flooding in our region, check out thep photos at http://www.pbase.com/georgecumbee/532011__flooding

I'll keep trying with the photos.