by Marianne Lange

Created on: July 05, 2008   Last Updated: July 10, 2008

One can only imagine what it would be like in a flash to lose everything; the overwhelming loss, racing emotions, confusion and anger. It happens every day to someone. Unless you've been there, you can empathize but really not know the depth of feelings that erupt upon your heart. Twice in my life this has happened. One time was as a young child, a family experience; we were burned out of our home, an apartment in New York City; another time was the challenge of an overwhelming divorce. Loss comes in many ways. Over the last few years it seems that weather patterns have grown more erratic, deadly so. Excessively heavy rains have flooded the Midwestern states and left a path of devastation and loss. The Mississippi seems to have come alive and overtaken its boundaries. Again, as in New Orleans and Katrina, there are more questions than answers.

"As in the days of Noah,"...the verse from Matt. 25 in the KJV continues, "people were marrying and given in marriage." Life was going on. So it is today. Life goes on. Some might say, "How will people survive the devastation? Who will help? How soon? How much? "The questions are real. To an outsider, they're fair. To an insider, those that live on the river, they're fair. Do they paint the complete picture? The expected picture for individuals caught in the devastation, maybe not.

Dr. Robert Criss has this to say:

"Yes, the loss of and damage to homes is heartbreaking and tragic, but it wasn't that long ago, in 1993, that a flood of equal impact hit the region to inundate homes in the floodplain. And, there was even more severe flooding than that in 1982," Criss said. "Flooding is what a river does on its geomorphic flood plain. It's an obvious geologic mistake to build on a floodplain" (Record, April 10, 2008).

Despite that "obvious geologic mistake," as Dr. Criss notes, thousands, maybe even more, live along the Mississippi. From what is presented in the news media, print and video, they will continue to live along the Mississippi. What can we do for them? More of the same.

The general consensus as you plow through their stories is that FEMA is out there doing a better job than at the time of Katrina. Everyone is not satisfied but there are home buyouts. There's money for rent and other programs to complement the package. Supporting faith-based groups that always run to the front lines when tragedy strikes is something else to have more firmly in place through government support.

As the problem of flooding is studied, it's

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