Amid bigger and more frequent floods, a city in Iowa debates how to ‘make peace’ with the Mississippi

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Riverfront Davenport survived for years without a levee. Now its downtown is underwater.

Rick Harris owns the Bootleg Hill taproom in Davenport, Iowa. By Frances Stead Sellers and Frances Stead Sellers Senior writer covering national politics Email Bio Follow Annie Gowen Annie Gowen National correspondent Email Bio Follow May 3 at 7:54 PM DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Half Nelson restaurant was well stocked and spiffy for its official opening Tuesday, an upscale addition to the locally owned businesses that anchor this riverfront city.

That strategy had been strikingly successful until this week, when the city’s system of removable barricades failed to withstand the river’s record-breaking rise, fueled by prolonged rain, snow melt and saturated ground. “I used to be neutral,” said Mike Osborn, Matthew’s father, who owns two other restaurants in the area and describes the Half Nelson as a $1.4 million investment. “Now I’m in favor of a flood wall.”

“I can’t control the weather, ” Reynolds said. “But we are going to come back stronger than ever, and we are open for business.” Davenport’s idiosyncratic approach to flood control dates back more than half a century, when city leaders investigated the possibility of building a permanent flood wall following a flooding disaster in 1965.

“The idea is you have to work with nature and leave nature to do its thing, and not stand in her way,” Clarke said. “Davenport’s done a fantastic job of doing that. Don’t get in an argument with nature. In an argument with man and nature, nature wins 100 percent of the time.”

 

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I remember when I was a kid there was always flooding along the Mississippi. They would show barns, silos in water, dead livestock floating by. Then the govt bought the land the farms were on, tore them down & voilà....no more massive farm floods on the banks of the Mississippi.

Vote Trump out of office, take climatechange seriously.

Move the city.

Hey

Keep electing republicans. That will definitely help.

God will save ya i am sure

More solar? Much faster? The change we saw coming done come.

This flood is a mess❌❌❌

Even Hillary Clinton didn’t do this badly. Joe Biden, the corrupt rat bastard and feeler of women can’t seem to get anyone out to his rallies, unless you count the paid participants. He was in South Carolina today at a liberal media estimate of 700. So make it half that.

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