Summertime but livin’ with old man river not easy and going to be even harder

In NOLA Levees.org has been out in force sending a message to “the nation and Congress that Louisiana deserves a 8/29 third-party independent investigation into the levee failures and that residents deserve federal flood protection that can be trusted folks” – up river Iowa officials are concerned about towns along the Mississippi River as floodwaters in the state’s eastern counties began to drain toward the river.

While some at this end of the Mississippi were fuming over a Corps of Engineers draft environmental impact report,

Folks in Iowa aren’t very happy with the Corps either – opinion up here is that the Corp left the lake levels too high for the memorial day weekend, then after that there was no time to lower them. One look at the pictures of flooding there is the only explanation needed.

So, is more of the same what folks have to look forward to from the 72-mile Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee system the Corps is proposing at a cost that would have purchased Louisana and left around $11 billion in change?

One look at the map shows there’s trouble ahead for those below Iowa – CNN tells that story.

Levees all along the mid-Mississippi were being topped with sandbags Tuesday as the river, fed by its flooded tributaries, continued to rise.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich called up 1,100 National Guard members to assist in sandbagging efforts, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. She also said inmates are helping on the levees and others are bagging sand in correctional institutions.

“We were very, very disappointed that this levee broke today,” said Thompson. “It’s a very powerful river, and it can be hard to harness.”

When it’s the river that’s high and not the cotton – or corn in this case – harnessing the economy will be hard as well.

As Sam Friedman points out, neither the NFIP or private insurers will be covering much of the lost.

Butch Kinerney, a spokesman for the NFIP, said that total losses for the NFIP are “so far unknown,” but that expectations are low given the low numbers of policyholders in the region.

As surging flood waters continue to inundate the Midwest, an insurance research group announced that a study has found only 17 percent of Americans have a flood insurance policy…

At the same time, in response to a question, Gary Kerney, assistant vice president of Property Claim Services–which catalogs insured losses from catastrophes–said it expects that the covered damage from the flooding “will be small in number since most of the affected properties are not insured for this peril.”

That brings us back to Sop’s post and the quote from Congressman Melancon.

Catastrophic flooding and levee breaches in Iowa could help Louisiana make its case that the federal government needs to make serious investments in infrastructure.

Once again, CNN has the story – this one on how the flooding just in Iowa will hurt the economy – a different version of the story those at this end of the River know all too well.

The flooding in Iowa over the last week has been a tremendous human tragedy for many in the Hawkeye state…

But it appears that the heavy rains will also have an impact that reaches far beyond the Midwest. Nationwide, consumers are likely to see higher grocery prices into next year due to disruptions in corn production. That could be another blow to an economy that’s already reeling in part because of inflation fears.

Iowa alone is estimated to have lost between 1 million and 3 million acres of corn production. That’s about 7% to 21% of the overall production by the nation’s top corn producing state…

So the damage done to these areas may wind up slowing the shipment of corn outside the U.S.

Maguire said about 19% of U.S. corn production is exported, outpacing the 11% to 12% that is consumed directly as corn or corn products by Americans.

Any disruption in corn exports could be another blow to the economy since selling good to other countries has been a source of strength during this downturn. It also has been a factor helping to keep the trade gap in check despite rising oil prices.

Melancon hit the target when he called attention to the need for investment in infrastructure. Unfortunately, when most think infrastructure, they think of in terms of “hard” infrastructure and that’s far too shortsighted to rebuild the economy.

The single most valuable element of our nation’s infrastructure is our people.

Our nation’s greatest failing after Katrina will prove to be the limited investment in rebuilding the “social community” – all because of our seeming inability to grasp that the “built community” and the “social community” are the two inseparable components of what we call our economy.