A year or so ago, I talked to a park ranger in Yankton, South Dakota, while watching the Missouri River from an overlook near Yankton. I casually asked the ranger why the Corps was holding back so much water in the spring. “To protect the plover,” he replied--as if it were common knowledge. “The what?” I inquired. “The plover--it is a shore bird that nests along the Missouri. If they let out too much water in the spring, it drowns out their nests and kills the baby birds. So the Corps holds it back to allow the birds to hatch.” How noble, I thought--we hold back mighty waters to protect bird life.
Fast forward to the spring of 2011. As I watch my friends in Dakota Dunes frantically trying to escape the mighty flood waters released in record amounts by the Corps this week, while their houses are ruined by the Muddy Mo, and my friends, neighbors, and family members work feverishly to protect our own homes and each others’ homes in Wynstone, South Dakota--up river a ways--I thought a lot about the plover.
Folks around here are asking: “Why is the Corps just now releasing record amounts of water, thereby creating a flood of epic proportions, the likes of which have never been experienced in recorded history?” If purposely flooding the folks on the Missouri River from Yankton down to Omaha and below is “flood control” [sic] then “flood control” is the biggest and cruelest oxymoron ever. Given that the United States experienced record amounts of snow and moisture last winter and this spring, it is certainly fair to ask: “Did the Corps not anticipate that the reservoirs upstream in South Dakota would be brim full?” Was there no thought given to the idea of releasing water incrementally over the past many months so as to avoid the largest single release of waters in history and the horrendous man-made catastrophe that has befallen our friends and neighbors along the Missouri?
Perhaps this is about the plover; or perhaps this is just about a government agency asleep at the switch. Perhaps it is a little of both. Either way the result is just the same--misguided government policy, and failure to anticipate that which any reasonable person would anticipate, has caused and continues to cause needless destruction of property and lives tragically interrupted.
If this example of “flood control” [sic] is any indication of how the government is going to run our health care system, God help us all. I hope the plover, at least, are happy. It does not look so good for us humans right now.
“His newest book, The Wind and the Spirit (Stories of Faith and Inspiration)” was released in 2011 with all the author’s royalties go to support the Carmelite sisters.”
