South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Floodplain

Floodplain Floods

More on the Mo

l3wis 5Comments

The Sioux City Journal has a great piece on the floods;

“Because people are lulled into believing floods will never come, people began building right up to the river. I think the building of Dakota Dunes symbolizes that,” he said. “I think, again, they’re putting their faith in the Corps of Engineers and dams in South Dakota to protect their property.”

As the Missouri River has flooded in recent days, frustrated property owners have criticized the corps for its management of the river. Many want to know why the corps didn’t begin releasing water from reservoirs earlier when it knew there was above-average snowfall in the mountains.

Why? Well because government doesn’t like change;

Col. Bob Ruch, commander of the Corps of Engineers Omaha Division, said the corps follows a master manual to set reservoir releases during the fall and winter so that once spring arrives and the snow melts, there is enough room to hold the influx of water.

Imagine if private industry worked like that? There would be no innovation, no new technologies.

Floodplain Floods South Dakotans Taxes

“What do I want to see a century from now? No dams on the Missouri River. None.” Stephen Ambrose – Author of Undaunted Courage

l3wis 14Comments

I was going to write a satirical piece about all the taxpayer dough that is spilling into Ft. Pierre and Dakota Dunes to save the McMansions, but I wish no ill-harm on anyone, even the arrogant and the rich, so I will take more of a serious approach to the irony.

First let’s look at the projected flood maps of Sioux City.

Most areas are in the 4 foot range. A map south of Jefferson SD down before you get to Dakota Dunes shows 2′ over I-29.  More as you approach the Big Sioux delta (see all the maps here).

Now let’s talk about the rich benefitting from democratic socialism (from a South DaCola foot soldier);

The GOvernor’s press conference yesterday mentioned that the 2 blackhawk helicopters bagging at Dakota Dunes were borrowed from Nebraska. All 6 of South Dakota’s were federalized and overseas. For the war(s). Daugaard was trying to borrow another one to have 3 flying.  He said the streets in Dakota Dunes were designed to slow traffic and stuff (gated?) so the sand trucks could not get in there and turn around to dump a sand berm.  Plus the storm sewers empty into the river so it will come up those first into the development if they are not plugged.

Those conferences are a CYA with some tea-party words to live by about taking care of your own property.

One of the state engineers said that the spillway at Pierre would not be opened for this event unless it was a catastrophic shit storm.  So I think some of the old infrastructure is not all that trustworthy.

This may also be part of the problem (SNARK)

But governor DooGard only thinks we need to use all of our FIBERS;

“We’re strong, self reliant and we’re going to fight this flood with every fiber of our being and were going to do everything we can to minimize it’s effects,” said Daugaard.

Isn’t it ironic that Doogard talks about ‘self reliance’ while the rich Republicans that piss and moan about taxes are benefitting from the social benefits of those taxes, such as the National Guard coming in to protect their homes from flooding? How does socialism feel now? According to Dakota Dunes website, shouldn’t they be exempt from receiving these benefits? Sounds like they pride themselves on self-reliance and not contributing to that icky socialism;

KEY ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES

· No personal state income tax
· No corporate state income tax
· No personal property tax
· No business inventory tax
· No inheritance tax
· No local sales tax

So who is getting stuck with the bill? We will. But as the above foot soldier points out;

If a state gave companies incentives to relocate to a corporate “city” with private security and no local government, who should get sued when the residents lose all the shit they own?

How can they sue the Feds when they don’t believe in what the Feds are doing? I mean, if you are anti-socialism, you can’t complain when a socialist entity like the National Guard fails to protect your homes. Right? Read more about Dakota Dunes and their backdoor buddy.

I merely posted this piece for discussion. Like I said above, I wish no harm on ANYONE, no matter who you are, rich or poor. I would love to put out a gigantic H/T to the foot soldier who provided me all of this info thru several emails. They will remain Anon. I would also like to say good luck to a National Guardsman I know who got called up to help with the efforts. They couldn’t have a finer person on the team.

Floodplain Floods Sioux Falls

Maybe we need to buy the Big Sioux river a pad w/ wings

l3wis 8Comments

We don’t seem to be concerned about transparency and conflict of interests in local government. We don’t seem to care about sewer backups, pot-marked streets and water rates being raised every 10 days. We even love to let the city spend millions on task-fucking-force after task-fucking-force on the events center (even though the public has yet to vote on a funding source).

But what do we like to get concerned about? Spring flooding.

Like a women’s menstrual cycle, spring flooding is pretty much gonna happen. Yeah, it may be off a few days, but it always happens. But it doesn’t stop our local government, officials and local media from blowing it way out of proportion;

They believe they have dodged a major bullet.  After weeks of preparing for record flooding, they now believe the flood threat for the city is over, at least for now.

While I should be having a sigh of relief, all I can do is laugh at how freaking ridiculous our city officials look making mountains out of mole hills. It would of took a civil engineer and a meteorologist about 30 minutes to figure out our flood threat was low. But hey, let’s divert attention from the real problems that exist in our city by talking about a woman’s monthly visitor.

Maybe we should hold a press conference about the threat of one-way streets downtown have on public safety. I see Iwegions and old people driving the wrong way all the time on them.

Floodplain Floods SF City Council Sioux Falls

Is the flooding scare really about flooding or money?

l3wis 5Comments

Photo: Mike Fodness (from KELO-TV website, flood 2010)

I watched this debate unfold during the SF city council informational meeting, and I got the feeling that the feds were more concerned about money then they were about flooding, and after reading this article, I’m starting to agree;

But a process that had been moving rapidly suddenly stalled when the money request reached the Corps headquarters in Washington.

Oh, that’s right, up until this point the city of Sioux Falls has subsidized the Feds by paying for the feds levees and flood controls while contributing to the Corp’s infrastructure.

“If we give them federal money now (something we all contribute to in our federal income taxes) we would be going against what we have done in the past. Better think this one through, we wouldn’t want to look like hypocrites . . .”

At issue is a rule that forbids the Corps from mixing emergency funds with project funds, Cotter said. The city of Sioux Falls issued bonds in 2009 to complete the levee upgrades after years of budget delays from Congress. Officials in Washington question whether the temporary emergency upgrades would qualify as mixing of funds with the city’s plan to finish permanent upgrades.

In other words, the Corps had the money to give us to do the permanent fixes and if they give us money now, it will prove it. I have said all along paying for those upgrades, actually borrowing money for those upgrades was f’ing stupid. I actually pleaded with a few councilors not to approve it. Councilor Staggers told me their hands were tied. Boloney!

It’s simple. If the Feds (FEMA) is telling you the levees need to be raised and those levees are owned by the Feds (Corps) it only makes sence they pay for it. The city should not be involved besides upgrading the bike trails, landscaping, etc.

We were really suckered and it looks like we will get suckered again.

FEMA Floodplain Floods Sioux Falls

The real reason the levees had to be raised in Sioux Falls

l3wis 15Comments

As I said all along, this is the REAL reason the levees had to be raised;

Once the flood-control measures are in place, probably by the end of next year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will redo its flood-plain maps and. In turn, fewer properties will be in the flood plain – saving money for property owners.

“Walmart, Sam’s Club, The Empire Mall, Target are some of the businesses” that will be taken out of the flood plain, said project manager Tom Berkland.

Instead of worrying about the 1% chance that Walfart might get flooded we should have been more concerned about all the poopy in people’s basements. And isn’t that the crux of it all? While we received record rains, besides a little street flooding, no where along the river (within Sioux Falls) there was flooding. Imagine that!?

It’s not only a state policy but a city policy;

“Big Business first, citizens second.”

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