Floods: In our prayers (been there, done that)

The Midwestern USA is being inundated by the spring floods. Sigh. 

flooding of the Mississippi or the Missouri rivers happen every couple of years, so no, it's not from Global warming... the ecological disasters of the 1920s and 30s is forgotten, including the great Mississippi flood of 1927:




but this one is flooding a major AFBase, and parts of Omaha are being evacuated.

But hey, no problem: it's the Midwest and so who cares. (/sarcasm)

it's not just the Missouri/Mississippi rivers that cause floods, of course. We evacuated patients from Grand Forks and Fargo when the Red River of the North flooded North Dakota and NW Minnesota.



and, then there was the Johnstown flood of 1977, which affected other nearby towns.... although I didn't live in the area until years later, when I bought my house, I discovered why it was so cheap: it had been under 6 foot of water during the flood of 1977.... luckily the foundation was 8 feet high, so the house survived. And the guys in my National Guard unit remember how they helped with the rescues and supplied clean water for residents until the water was safe.



Here in the Philippines, the houses near the river flood every couple of years, but Lolo built the house on a foundation higher than street level, so we only flooded once since we moved here, when they opened a dam (without warning) to prevent it from over-topping and failing during one heavy storm system.

The neighbors sheltered in their second floor during the flood, as we did (with some other neighbors) but we let them park their cars in the meeting room, which only flooded up to six inches inside. 

However, during another typhoon that changed course resulted in Ruby and the driver being stranded at a gasoline station when the bridge about 20 miles south of here was flooded. They thought they were safe, until about 11 pm when the water started topping the wheels, so they took refuge in the Gas station's store, and a half hour later, the water started flooding the store so they sought refuge on the roof. Nearby, at least one man was drowned trying to wade through the water to get his tricycle out of the flood, alas: the river is downstream from the mountains and the current is swift...

third world floods are alas common and rarely get in the news.

Right now, there is flooding in Zimbabwe.

Ah yes. The year before I worked there, there had been a heavy rainy season, and one of our nuns was found convulsing and the roads and bridges were flooded...there was no physician at the 200 bed hospital at the time, so they called the physician at the next hospital, and she advised them to give her a shot of quinine for cerebral malaria, even though the blood test was negative (a common problem in diagnosing cerebral malaria). The area usually did not have malaria, but there had been some cases due to the unusually wet rainy season, so I never saw a case when I worked there, although I did see a lot of cases when I worked in Liberia, and got a light case myself.

Well, anyway, after three days, Sister was still in a coma, and the "high bridge" of the main road still under a foot of water, so they checked the maps and found a road far north that was upstream from the flooding, and evacuated her that way. And indeed it turned out to be cerebral malaria (the parasites were found in the bone marrow), and unlike many who die of this dreadful complication of malaria, she survived. without brain damage.

The last I heard she was busy running an HIV clinic in Harare that dictator Mugabe destroyed in his "slum clearances" which were done to punish neighborhoods that voted the wrong way.

Right now, in the Philippines, we have the opposite problem: Drought. It is "tag-Init" or the hot and dry season before the Monsoon comes in June, so our deep well is a bit sluggish and we have to supplement it with city water. 

Manila is having a major water shortage, and this Rappler article explains why: the high demand for water due to the population boom, but also because the dam supplying the water has low water levels. Diverting water resources from other dams might help in the future too.

I rarely visit Manila, but I know here, in the past ten years, the population has increased, the level of prosperity has increased, and there are many more businesses. Many of the rice fields just outside of town now have fancy houses, often built as a vacation house by Manila residents, but some are houses replacing their previous house as the returning overseas workers are coming home with money and want a decent house.

So blame Global warming, or blame increased population, or blame the increase in prosperity that means folks use more water per person, or blame the government for not anticipating the increased water need.

Oh well. Just wait and the monsoon will solve it all, complete with flooding.