As Mississippi River rises, a hero emerges

The title of this article makes it sound like there's a knight in shining armor that's saving everyone from the flooding of the Mississippi River. This hero isn't a person at all; it's the flood control system. In the early 1900's, the Mississippi River had a huge flood, similar to the recent one. We learned from history, and engineers came up with a 2203 mile long levee system built along the river. Because of this system, many cities and people living in those cities have been saved from the massive amounts of water. One downfall is that the levees push water up the river's tributaries, causing floods in more rural areas. Those areas don't get any extra money coming in to fund for added infrastructure.

I wasn't aware of all the flooding until today, but my heart goes out to all of those affected by this disaster. I feel like flooding is a very underestimated natural disaster when it's compared to hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. It's good for us to remember how terrible this really is so that we can do what we can to help those affected. People have to evacuate their homes and go live in shelters, leaving everything they're used to behind. I know that certainly wouldn't be an easy thing. I hope that this passes and that we can learn from history again to come up with an even better way to tame the river.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42973616/ns/us_news-environment/