Recurring floods show it's time for a different approach

As summer recedes into fall, so too will the vivid images of the record-shattering Mississippi River flooding that once again disrupted lives and livelihoods this year in both Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

The near-annual summer ritual of volunteers and National Guard troops furiously filling sandbags was little match for 144 consecutive days of flooding that ravaged Alexander County farmland, shut down the Mississippi River bridge in Chester for nearly three weeks, pushed out families from their homes, and forced Illinois commuters to wade through knee-high water along otherwise impassable roads to get to work in Cape Girardeau.

According to independent research by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts, flood-related disasters in this country have cost more than $750 billion since 2000. You don't need to be a hydrologist or economist to realize that continually paying for such damages after the fact isn't sustainable.

With Congress now back in session after its annual August recess, it's high time for our elected leaders in Washington, in cooperation with the states, to pursue more investment in flood mitigation -- to both better protect our communities and lower the financial burden of future flooding on American taxpayers.

What's needed is a cost-sharing partnership, capitalized with federal dollars but administered by states, to provide long-term, low-interest financing to homeowners, businesses, community organizations and local governments for disaster mitigation projects, whether floods in our region and upstream in greater St. Louis to Tornado Alley twisters and Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The precedent is already in place. For more than 30 years, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund has leveraged $41 billion in federal investments and an additional $7.6 billion in state funds to allot $126 billion for local governments to modernize their water treatment plants, improve drinking water quality and make other vital improvements.

A State Flood Mitigation Revolving Fund now awaits further consideration in D.C., with proposals pending in both the House and Senate. But the clock is ticking, with less than one month before the scheduled expiration of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), another critical component of federal flood policy. Allowable projects include much-needed environmental restoration efforts and the demolition, relocation, or elevation of structures in the floodplain

The proposed loan fund is included in an NFIP reauthorization bill that has passed the House. Other worthy NFIP reforms include proposals to boost local floodplain management and mitigation in communities with an abundance of repeatedly-flooded properties, which represent about 1% of NFIP policyholders but account for 20 to 30% of claims; and a federal requirement that both sellers and landlords disclose a property's flood history to prospective buyers and renters.

Incredibly, such a requirement doesn't exist, with instead a patchwork of state regulations. Among the states with no such disclosure requirement: Missouri.

According to the National Institute for Building Sciences, money spent on hazard mitigation leads to significant money being saved in the long run. Unfortunately, post-disaster spending will always be necessary, but it's past time for a more thoughtful approach to address disasters before they occur.

David Stokes is executive director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance in St. Louis, Missouri