The Nebraska flooding

Figured as much - a long but good read at American Thinker:

Nebraska Flooding: When the Government Cares More about Birds than People
When I recently discussed (in these pages) the degree of responsibility for the current catastrophic flooding that should accrue to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), I clearly stated that the entirety of flooding could not have been prevented by the Corps or any other organization.

However, the severity and frequency of flooding throughout the Missouri River basin — most specifically, what has resulted in all but nine of Nebraska's 93 counties being under a federal disaster declaration — has increased dramatically due to one reason only, and it ain't climate change.

A bit more:

When the Corps believed that protecting people and property was a more worthy aim than fish and wildlife, the riverbanks were stabilized, shored against erosion and high-water events. The channels were kept largely free of silt infill to facilitate the draining efficiency of the river that essentially deals with the runoff of vast millions of square miles of mountain and plains snow and rain.

Dikes were built and maintained. Levees, too. Chutes (secondary channels of a meandering river) were closed to inhibit the ability of the river to overcome its banks in seasons of high-water. All these things (and more) combined to permit millions of Americans to develop the reclaimed lands, for farming, ranching, and homes. Indeed, these millions of Americans were encouraged to do so by their elected representatives, who happily took credit for the resulting economic benefits and increased tax revenues.

And then the environmentalists get involved:

Environmental groups like the Sierra Club and American Rivers advocate the wholesale removal of dams, even if it requires the forced relocation of millions of people and their businesses. They seek a continent with untamed rivers, devoid of human interference with the perceived "natural processes" of ebb and flood. At this level of green-think, it is more religion than science, with devotion measured in antipathy for the needs of mankind whenever there is conflict with nature.

There is a recurrent phrase used in Corps and other agencies discussions of "river recovery." That phrase is "reconnecting the river to its floodplain." The importance of this concept to the overall goal of "river recovery" can be readily seen in the anthropomorphic spall that surrounds its use, as if the river is a mother cruelly separated from her child, the floodplain, by the heartless brutality of man.

The USACE is now destroying the existing, well maintained infrastructure that protects the farmland - who will pay for its rebuilding once clearer heads get back in power? Much more at the site and a sobering examination of what rule by the elites looks like - clueless, out of touch and no accountability at all.