"Why does it always have to come down to a low tech rubberband repair like Sandbagging??" asks MooPig the Wiser for having been trapped in flood waters after Allison Hurricane."I'm not going back after this one," 83-year-old Lois Russell said as she watched water surround her house near Gulfport. It was the third time she had fled her home because of flooding since 1965.
"It was a good place to raise my seven kids," she said, crying. "I know I haven't lost anything that feels important because I have a big family."
Gulfport, IL.Then on Tuesday, the worst happened: The levee burst and Gulfport was submerged in 10 feet of water. Only 28 property owners were insured against the damage.
"They all told us, `The levees are good. You can go ahead and build,"' said Parks, who did not buy flood coverage because her bank no longer required it. "We had so much confidence in those levees."
Around the country, thousands of residents who relied on risk maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, [FEMA], may unknowingly face similar dangers.
"People put all their hopes in those levees, and when they do fail, the damage is catastrophic," said Paul Osman, the National Flood Insurance Program coordinator for Illinois. "New Orleans is the epitome; a lot of those people didn't even realize they were in a floodplain until the water was up to their roofs."
Midwest Flood Victims Feel Misled
By TAMMY WEBBER and MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER, AP Posted: 2008-06-20 11:13:32
GULFPORT, Ill. (June 20) -- Juli Parks didn't worry when water began creeping up the levee that shields this town of about 750 from the Mississippi River - not even when volunteers began piling on sandbags.
After all, local officials had assured townspeople in 1999 that the levee was sturdy enough to withstand a historic flood, and FEMA had agreed. In fact, some relieved homeowners dropped their flood insurance, and others applied for permits to build new houses and businesses.
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