How was the city’s response to the flood?

This letter to the editor touches on some interesting points;

Time and again water problems plague this city, but often time they are attributed to acts of God. Yet, these problems represent so many policy failures on the part of our various local, state, and national governments that it seems maddening.

I had to laugh about this line. I told the council once that God must be angry with Sioux Falls because when the city doesn’t want to pay out a claim they call it ‘Act of God’.

The responsibility of surface water runoff lies in our urban planners; yet, no comprehensive changes to the development of Sioux Falls vis-a-vis its surface water management have been proposed or even floated.

This has always been my issue with the urban sprawl on outskirts of city limits versus density and rehab of our core areas. Fast, irresponsible growth has caused many of our flooding issues. And the advice from the Planning Department when it comes to flooded basements; Slab on Grade.

Finally, the responsibility of emergency response lies in our local and regional officials; funnily enough, despite knowing the troubles this city has with water management, it took until March 15 for a State of Emergency to be declared, well after flooding was quite extreme in Sioux Falls.

Yeah, it seemed no one had a clue ahead of time. Spring? Rain? Thawing? What’s that?

Far from being a an act of God, it is becoming increasingly obvious that such problems are caused by multifaceted policy failures. It is time we demand more of our leaders.

Good luck pulling those ‘Good Christians’ from their prayer rooms long enough to attend a meeting of Emergency Management.