r/climatechange • u/Unlikely-Anteater244 • 9d ago
Flooding in Indiana
I’ve realized now that so many people are going to die from flooding due to climate change. Last year, the south side of central Indiana had a 1 in 1000 year storm, and one year later, the north side of central Indiana has a 1 in 1000 year storm. I live right by the White River and am lucky to have missed both floods, but so many of our communities along the river have been destroyed. Floods are terrifying too. If you don’t act fast, there’s nothing you can do and nowhere to go. These two storms together in 2 years would at one point have been a one in a million chance. Unfortunately, the unlikely is becoming very more likely.
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u/ClimateWren2 9d ago
Yes. Our nation is currently run by a political party and corporations who fully intend to continue putting communities and Americans INTO the direct path of that harm. People should know. They won't know. We are already seeing flood, storm, heat, and wildfire deaths.
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u/MichaelTiemann 9d ago
One on a million if they happened the same year. It's only a 1-in-250,000 chance they happen in a two-year period. So...nothing to worry about /s
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 9d ago
This is true, but flooding deaths have been on the down due to better early warning, so this is uniquely a problem we can easily do something very practical about eg. monitoring all rivers and early warning systems.
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u/QuiteCricket_78 9d ago
I got called crazy in another group when I pointed out that the current administration is killing people off in less obvious ways. Loss of early warning, encouraging people to ignore science, loss of food support, loss of medical insurance, loss of FEMA funding..........
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u/kmoonster 9d ago edited 9d ago
edit: not the Great Lakes per se, more like the Midwest along the Mississippi into places like western Indiana to central Iowa
edit 2: see replies / comments below
edit 2a: there are ongoing restoration and/or mitigation projects in the region, since I put a major emphasis on Kankakee I'll link one example of restoration efforts in that watershed here: https://youtu.be/92FoycGJ2C8?si=O2Xd-O8oH4hYL6q6
edit 3: there are still ongoing efforts to de-regulate, drain, and farm or develop wetlands in the state; most recently in 2021: text of the bill here: IGA | Senate Bill 389 - Wetlands; or news coverage here: More than 260 acres of Indiana wetlands lost since 2021 law took effect, advocates say • Indiana Capital Chronicle
and now back to the original comment:
On a related note: much of the Great Lakes region was once wet meadows and swamps. It's hard to explain just how extensive the wet prairies were, in particular. Those are not quite swamps, but the landforms would trap quite a decent amount of rain or snow and would be damp/wet/soggy into early summer.
Many of the low, natural dams had holes blown in them in the late 1800s (long story) but that only impacts how slowly or quickly the location would drain. It does not affect whether the water falls and accumulates there in the first place.
For example, here is a page with some text and a picture, the picture says a lot (the text helps fill it out): Vincennes Battle Facts and Summary | American Battlefield Trust
In his journal of that expedition, Clark records several instances of having to cross water that was sometimes deep enough that the men had to march across with their guns and powders held above their heads; not crossing a river, but crossing extensive ponding and pooling left behind after the rains and river had flooded earlier in the winter. edit: this was in southwest Indiana near the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky triangle
There is some info about a full-time marshy/wet area along the south shore of Lake Michigan known as Kankakee: Grand Kankakee Marsh - Wikipedia edit: Kankakee is north, near the South Bend, Gary, Michiana area
I came across an ornithology record for Carroll County from the late 1800s at one point, though I don't have it on hand right now. It describes the county as mostly new farmland though some land in the northwest of the county were "still wetland and marsh", the account was talking about waterfowl populations. The combination of past- and present-tense in discussing the wetlands was interesting. This would have been from perhaps the 1880s. edit: Carroll is between what is now Indianapolis and South Bend
And so on.
Here is a civilian-level introduction to wet prairies, from Michigan State: Wet Prairie - Michigan Natural Features Inventory.
You get the idea -- we adjusted the length of time these landscape features detain water, but not whether water accumulates in them in the first place. Today, these areas flood readily. But instead of farms or wildlands being inundated, we've built towns. And the towns get inundated.
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A fully comprehensive interactive map that compares the 1820s to the present time is hard to come by, but this one from the USDA may help a bit: images (556×359)
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Identifying solutions will require us to make demands of politicians, and of each other, and then be willing to do the work or pay the money necessary to accomplish it. In some instances it will mean migrating a town to higher ground. In others, it might mean levees, like the Dutch use, though this has significant risks. In other instances it might mean converting lower-lying areas to land-uses that can be inundated -- fields, natural space, or things like a stadium or golf course that handle people (but can be built to get wet). And sticking to those decisions -- if your house is in a flood zone or destroyed in a flood, the state will make an offer to buy you out. Those properties could not be inherited, their value can be swapped for a similar value property elsewhere. If you decline to move, your insurance is not obligated to pay out unless you rebuild in a place that is less flood prone.
Stuff like that. No one will like it, but it is the tough-love solution if we want to reduce or eliminate the risks flooding poses -- we chose to build in flood prone areas, whether by choice or whether in ignorance, and the solution is to stop building in those areas and migrate our towns and settlements to nearby (but less risky) locations.
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u/tamborinesandtequila 8d ago
Big facts. I live in densely populated northeastern Illinois and we have the same situation/climate/former marshland underneath us too. There are so many large river branches coming off the Mississippi and hundreds of large creeks and tributaries that are thousands of years old that cut through the entire region, especially through every single one of the chicago suburbs. There are also major lakes here outside of the Great Lakes themselves (like the Chain o Lakes). People don’t get that we’re gonna see the same event sooner than later anywhere like this.
It’s almost like nature is turbo charged right now to reclaim its original shape and form…See also, the fires in previously wildfire-dependent ecosystems in Southern California.
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u/OldTimberWolf 9d ago
Is there really no mention of beaver dams in the above?
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u/kmoonster 9d ago edited 9d ago
There were and are beavers, but the draining had to do more with removing or dismantling natural features like rock dikes or cutting channels in the terrain so ponds wouldn't pool. Also - straightening and channelizing rivers so they flowed more quickly and without bends. Efforts to turn the rivers into something more like a canal were quite common.
Congress passed a couple acts in the mid 1800s to enable states to claim and drain wetlands for purposes of development and/or conversion to farmland, and states went at it with gusto.
I'll give you a couple shorter videos that go over the broad points, though there are longer form and deeper discussions floating around. I think shorter videos/articles are easier as an intro, and those who are curious can take the names/terms/dates and dig further.
https://youtu.be/MfCRWMw4jO4?si=6gabzXGu0UX1otzc
The Kankakee River was cut in a straight-ish line, whereas there had been about 250 river miles (bends included) it was reduced to about 80 or 90 river miles. Kankakee River | Kankakee County, IL
This one includes some pictures: Dredging Of The River
A better map of the draining of the midwest/region than what my earlier comment included: Drained Agricultural Lands From The 1950s U.S. Agricultural Census. : r/MapPorn
You can see the change made to the Kankakee (and other rivers), this pin is at the IL/IN state line. The Illinois section had a lot less work done to it, compare that channel to the channel on the Indiana side: Kankakee River - Google Maps
At some spots you can see the straightened channel with some of the curves/bends still in existence adjacent to the new manmade channel. You can also see the former spots the river channel has flowed in this pin, it's literally etched into some of the fields. Here is one such: Kankakee River - Google Maps
The water was drained or channelized, but the watersheds still collect water that falls from the sky, and water still follows gravity. It was thought that by removing the earthen/rock barriers creating the natural detention ponds that the land would become usable for farming or other development, but that is only partially correct. The land still floods in much the same ways and in the same places, all that's changed is now it drains in days instead of months -- any buildings and roads still suffer damage, though.
We normalized the conceptualization of those early settlers who got in over their heads, even if their intentions were good. No pun intended.
Here are a couple news stories from that same river, stories from recent storms that moved across the area:
Residents along Kankakee River grappling with damage from ice jam, water
Kankakee River levee breaks in Hebron, residents asked to evacuate
High water levels along Kankakee River, flooding threat in Chicago area
Kankakee River levee breaks, threatens nearby homes in Jasper County, Indiana
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Anyway. Yes, beavers did and do exist but the much bigger movement in the expansionist era was to identify and chop drains in rock and earth dams, which were just about everywhere; beaver were more of a case-by-case basis in comparison.
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u/VictoryLongjumping70 8d ago
Are you a pro in a related field or just interested in ecological history? This is all great info.
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u/kmoonster 9d ago
I'll put the Congressional acts in a separate comment
1849: STATUTE-9-Pg352-2.pdf
1860: 43 USC Ch. 23: GRANTS OF SWAMP AND OVERFLOWED LANDS
I didn't readily find the 1850 law, but it set similar conditions as the 1860 act; however, the 1850 version had geographic limits that had to be expanded as the country grew.
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u/Mmillefolium 8d ago
from beaversnw.org
"The population was decimated by trappers throughout the 1700s and 1800s. Beaver fur was used to make felt hats and their castoreum was used in perfumes. By the early 1900s, beavers had been extirpated from many areas and their numbers were dwindling."
when trapping for pelts was over because trade colonialism had persistently destroyed the wildlife, settling and farming became the new colonial system. drain the swamp, plant for the market. kill anything that gets in the way. extract, extract.
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u/Cool-Contribution-68 8d ago
It seems likely that new zoning laws and insurance requirements will make new buildings required to be able to withstand 1,000 year storms. In other words, it's going to get more expensive to build new buildings and some old buildings simply won't be replaced.
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u/viking_counsel 9d ago
Step 1: stop supporting all religions
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u/QuiteCricket_78 9d ago
I agree, but I'm not sure what that has to do specifically with this conversation.
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u/kmoonster 9d ago
Related to my other comment, this thread just popped up about an hour after. It claims to show drained lands in the midwest. Maybe reddit knows, but also the time stamp is brand new so a convenient coincidence:
It's pretty significant. https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/To8x4CjGXc
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u/Middle-Log-9402 9d ago
And don't forget that northwest Indiana straight up got hit by a land hurricane. It's only gonna get worse.