LETTER: Report from flood panel isn't enough

Even upstream of Ponca, Neb., the high flows did not mean widespread suffering as we saw in our segment of the river. The river channel in the 59-mile stretch of the Missouri National Recreational River was able to absorb flows of 160,000 cubic acre feet per second because the channel was naturally wider and the water found its floodplain. Disruption was minimal.

The wing dikes, revetments and other controlling structures of the barge channel were not designed for a wide enough river channel and connection to the floodplain. Surprising isn't it that the segment just downstream of Gavins Point Dam could handle the high flows and the segments south of Ponca and Sioux City spread out once the barge channel hit capacity?

The Missouri River barge channel has not just proven it is an economic failure; 2011 proved it an engineering failure as well. Citizens and economic developers are not going to be satisfied with an independent review of the Army Corps management of the river. A new master plan for the river has to respond to the weaknesses in the system created back in the 1940s. Is any business going to ignore the flood's lessons and build along the river without a thorough revamping of the longest river in America?

Basin governors and congressional delegations have the responsibility for demanding a complete analysis of the 2011 flood, not an absolution from a small panel of experts. - Jim Redmond