Floodplain Development--Learning from the Great Flood of 1993 (FEATURE‪)‬

NEARLY 14 YEARS AGO, THE NATIONAL NEWS WAS DOMINATED by stories of levee breaks and flooding along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. In 2005, the story of the year was destruction on the Gulf Coast caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, compounded by the massive impact of two levee breaks that devastated neighborhoods in New Orleans. A year later, we saw serious flash flooding across the Northeast as a result of heavy local rains--up to 14 inches in places--with the entire state of Pennsylvania declared a disaster area. Numerous other instances of flooding in areas along inland rivers impacted by flooding also have been documented, as has the continuing devastation of shorelands affected by hurricanes. Added to these traditional concerns is the fear of rising ocean levels from global warming that will affect not only coastal properties, but also inland riverfronts.