Midwest flood issues: Financial survival intheshort-run, improved flood readiness in the longer-run

As farmers in the affected areas plan to build back and farmers elsewhere have building plans in place, elevation is an important concept. Identifying high spots for the placement of grain storage facilities and making them even higher may be a wise investment as we enter an era of more extreme weather events. It may be easy to think that a 500-year flood event is a remote possibility in your area, but such an event is likely to take place somewhere in the next decade or two. A bit of caution now could prevent a disastrous situation in the future. None of us should avoid long-term planning that takes more extreme weather events into account. Just this spring, flooding in Knoxville, left Harwood with only two long routes out of his area of town and a nearby road built only 5 years ago was under water for nearly two weeks. Whether one lives in the hills of East Tennessee, the prairie pothole region of Iowa, or the prairies of Nebraska, when it comes to the future it may be better to be safe than sorry.