GatewayRedbirds.com

So my cabin was flooded this summer. It actually sits higher than the levee on the other side of the river but that levee was sandbagged so the water got higher than it should. I'm not complaining about them sandbagging. However the county has decided it wants to force us to either raise our cabin or demolish it. I'm not sure why it matters to them but oh well. My lawyer basically was going to send them a letter that says [expletive] off.

They'd have to buy your land to do that. FEMA may not want to allow it to be insured if it continually floods and it's under the bfe, but no one has any right to tell you to demolish your existing building rather it is insured through fema or not. They can buy it from you though and if it's for floodplain purposes of some sorts they can use eminent domain to take it.

The damage is pretty minimal. To demolish it is a huge over reaction. It only had about a foot of water in it. We already have the old paneling tore out and the place is dried out. We are just contemplating what's best to replace it with.

https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=sclm7&wfo=lsx

I have been watching these water level graphs more than normal this summer, mainly for the Missouri when I want to paddle it.


Amateur observations, that seem to be backed up by this article:
It's pretty damn crazy that the Missouri has been bumping over flood levels into September.

The levels are responding almost immediately -going up for semi-localized rain. Normally the big rivers are more affected by sustained upstream occurrences with a lag effect downstream. A typical rain, even couple of inches between Omaha and KC and Hermann is essentially a drop in the river bucket by this time of year.

I believe this means a couple things - lands outside of the proper river banks - in reservoirs, flood plains and drainages are saturated - I saw this out Highway 94 -there is still standing water in the fields that still floodplains. So rain water isn't soaking up in these areas, and just pours into the river . 2 inches of rain mean much more than a 2 inch rise in river level -at least more than normal
Heading into Fall, still near flood levels does not bode well for next year.

Disclaimer - I don't know wtf I'm talking about. read the article.

I think you are probably right. I also think the massive amount of concrete and asphalt poured in the last 20 years is having a huge impact on river flooding. Water that once soaked in now runs off.