Rivers and lakes all over the Midwest rushed over their banks in the month of June, flooding hundreds of towns, cities and 5 million acres of farmland. The extent of the damage for workers, farmers and the economy is vast.
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The disaster is being called the Great Flood of 2008. It is the second major flood in the region in the last 15 years.
Severe flooding has occurred in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. As of this writing, flooding continues on the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Mo.
So far there have been 26 deaths, billions of dollars in home losses and an estimated $8 billion in agriculture losses. These numbers could rise depending on a number of factors, including rainfall amounts and how many more levees along the Mississippi break.
In Iowa, half a dozen major rivers, including the Cedar River and the Iowa River swept over levees and floodwalls, causing destruction in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Cedar Falls and Waterloo. Many small towns, such as Columbus Junction and Oakville in Iowa, were completely flooded out.
On June 15, the swollen rivers of Iowa flowed into the Mississippi. In total, 36 levees have failed on the upper Mississippi.
Heavy snow and rainfall in the winter and spring are the primary natural causes of the flood. Agricultural scientists had predicted major flooding for the area as early as April.
The recent sweeping changes made in corn and soybean production in Iowa have also contributed to the floods. A rise in corn prices has led to more land being cultivated. Between 2007 and 2008, farmers took 106,000 acres of Iowa land out of the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to keep farmland uncultivated.
Farmland absorbs much less rain than uncultivated land, which is usually covered with prairie grasses. Improved drainage techniques, including underground pipe systems, have added to river levels. Iowa—a state of rivers and farmland—has lost 90 percent of its wetlands.
Waiting until disaster hits
Despite the changes, the federal government has not planned for the increased river levels. In Cedar Falls in northern Iowa, river levels were six feet higher than they have ever been.
Most of the levees in the affected areas failed due to underfunding and a stunning lack of government coordination regarding the river systems in the Midwest. Outrageously, there is no coordinated federal levee system north of Cairo, Ill., on the Mississippi or on Iowa rivers.
According to the Des Moines Register and Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa has no active levee inspection system for the hundreds of levees built by the state, cities, businesses, individuals and farmers. The state of Iowa does not inspect levees because there is no funding for inspection.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has no systematic plan for levees in Iowa. In fact, there is no federal agency that is responsible for overseeing levees in the United States. There is no accurate accounting or mapping of levees and no plan in the works to make such a map.
Though the DNR has the authority to approve levees according to Iowa law, in practice there is no regulation of levee building in the state.
In Des Moines, major flooding was averted on the basis of levees reconstructed with state and federal money after the 1993 flood. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City were not so fortunate.
The one area of Des Moines that was heavily damaged in the flood, the working-class Birdland neighborhood, was the victim of a failed levee built in 1953. The Birdland levee had been slated for repair in 1993. But the levee has not been repaired yet because the Corps has not certified the badly needed levee, so federal matching funds have not been allocated.
During the crisis, the federal government left states to fend for themselves in their desperate fight against the flooding. Thousands of volunteers helped with sandbagging and other efforts to try to stem the flooding. But there was no government-led national emergency preparations before or mobilization during the flood.
Agents from the Federal Emergency Management Agency showed up to inspect and condemn houses and dole out a few thousand much-needed dollars to flood victims. But the vast resources of the United States were not mobilized to save homes, towns and farms.
President Bush stayed in Europe, visiting castles and heads of states while the people of Iowa struggled to survive the flood.
Cedar Rapids: the face of destruction
In Cedar Rapids, the flood damage was extensive. Entire lives have been turned upside down. Over 1,000 blocks of homes—predominantly in the working-class communities along the Cedar River—were under water for four days to over a week in some places.
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The damage to Cedar Rapids is expected to reach well over $1 billion. Flooding reached areas in the 100-year and 500-year flood plains—areas expected to be hit by floods once every 100 and 500 years, respectively.
The water has made many of the homes uninhabitable. On June 25, the city announced a plan to demolish 2,000 homes.
Vast amounts of personal possessions were turned into trash. The city estimates that trash produced by the flood—wrecked furniture, appliances, and other belongings—will fill up an area as big as two football fields up to 60 feet high.
Electricity has not been restored in much of the city. Mercy Hospital was forced to shut down for 10 days due to the flooding.
The sewer system has been severely damaged. The sewage treatment plant is still offline. On June 24, residents were warned not to go near floodwaters because of dangerous levels of bacterial contamination.
The oldest mosque in the United States, the Mother Mosque, has been flooded. Many museums and cultural landmarks, including the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library have been badly damaged.
Many do not trust the government, especially in the wake of FEMA’s deplorable response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
A week after the flooding started, on June 19, President Bush visited Cedar Rapids. The Associated Press reported that Lashawn Baker, whose home was in hard-hit southwest Cedar Rapids, said: “I really don’t have much of an opinion of his coming. It took him a long time to get to New Orleans and he didn’t help any of those people, so I don’t think he’s going to do anything to help Cedar Rapids now that he’s here.”
In fact, FEMA will do everything it can to minimize the amount of aid and relief given to people of Cedar Rapids and the entire Midwest. The maximum amount of aid homeowners or renters can receive is $28,000. This is a paltry sum when compared to the needs of a worker whose home is destroyed or job has been lost due to the flood.
According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, many Iowans are finding it increasingly difficult to get answers and assistance from FEMA response centers. Two weeks into the disaster, thousands of people have received no aid.
Dave Spitaleri, owner of the Railsplitter Inn along the Mississippi River in Hull, Ill., said, “It might behoove the government to consider spending $5 billion or $6 billion less on foreign wars and invest that money on helping out people here instead.”
Economic aftershocks felt far and wide
The economic impact of the 2008 flood could be far reaching. They are expected to go beyond Iowa and the Midwest and reach people all over the country and perhaps the world.
The United States produces more corn than the rest of the world combined, and Iowa is the country’s largest corn producer. In 2007, Iowa produced 2.5 million bushels of corn.
Due to the flooding, 15 percent of the corn crops and 20 percent of the soybean crops were lost. Other states, including Indiana and Illinois, have suffered significant crop losses as well. Most of the lost corn cannot be replanted this growing season and many farmers will struggle to break even.
The floods have helped push corn prices to a record $8 a bushel, up from $3.75 in mid-2007. Rising corn prices will continue to affect a wide range of food prices. Corn is used in 75 percent of processed foods. Meat and dairy prices will climb further since soybeans and corn are the main source of hog and cow feed.
The cost of gasoline will also rise. Corn is used to produce ethanol, which is added to an increasing amount of gasoline that is sold at stations around the country.
Price controls could be easily instituted for basic goods like food, gasoline, electricity, heating fuels and more. But under the capitalist system, the market and corporate profits irrationally determine prices—even for basic essentials.
Even before the impact of the flood, food prices and energy prices were skyrocketing. Facing an economic downturn, oil companies and billionaire Wall Street financiers—careless of the danger that speculation poses to the economy—are driving up the prices of food and energy well above their cost of production in a feverish attempt to sustain their profit levels.
Though it may seem unrelated on the surface, a crisis like a great loss of production of corn can greatly add to the suffering for workers in a time of general economic crisis. Government inaction in the face of the ongoing criminal profiteering on the part of Wall Street threatens the livelihood of millions of people.
What can help alleviate the crisis?
A massive federal recovery program will be needed to help revive the areas affected by the flood. Funds should be allocated to adequately cover the entire cost of recovery. Not one worker, farmer or small businessperson should have to take out a loan in order to rebuild. The burden of recovery should not be placed on the backs of working people, but those responsible for the lack of funding for preventive measures and centralized emergency response.
In 1994, after severe flooding devastated the Midwest in 1993, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers formed a commission that issued a 272-page report proposing a systematic overhaul of the levee system in the Midwest. But the funding was denied and the proposal was dropped.
In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, the government passed a bill to inspect the nation’s levees. Funding has never been approved for the project and there have been no inspections.
In the past 15 years, there have been two 500-year floods in the Midwest. The flooding this year may not be over: Water levels remain high and the ground remains saturated in many places.
The federal government could avert further floods and damage by funding a national project to inspect, rebuild and coordinate the levee system. A national plan could be put in place to coordinate prevention and relief efforts during flood season.
Washington will not take these obvious steps without a political mobilization of the masses. Funding for people’s needs is not a priority for the capitalist government. Shoring up levees to protect people’s lives and homes will not be on the agenda unless the people intervene. The vast wealth, resources and know-how of U.S. workers will be left untapped.
Time after time during natural disasters, Washington has shown an irresponsible and criminal disregard for systematic planning and coordinated action. During crises, the people are left to take care of themselves. After the crisis, there is much talk. Reports are filed. Committees meet. But genuine, wide-ranging natural disaster plans that can save lives and local economies are usually not implemented.
Workers all over the country must demand full recovery aid and relief for our sisters and brothers in the Midwest. Progressives and revolutionaries must work to expose the capitalist government’s disregard for the people.
Advance planning and comprehensive mobilizations are needed to prevent and cope with natural disasters. Society’s wealth should be liberated from the bank accounts of the billionaires so that there is no impediment to delivering full aid to the people in times of need.
