
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993                   TAG: 9307290468
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HELP RIOTERS, BUT NOT FLOOD VICTIMS?

I HAVE followed with dismay the articles on the editorial pages criticizing the management of flood plains, now devastated in the Midwest. I am especially distressed by the editorial, Next Comes the Flood of Bills (July 14). I call attention to the shocking line from that editorial, If they want to defy nature, let them bear - alone - the price of their folly.

To carry that premise further, we must condemn all those who settle on the San Andreas fault, where hurricanes occur, where tornados strike, where forest fires reoccur, where blizzards cause damage.

Rivers were the first highways. Settlements logically sprang up along rivers. That's history; they're home to some and commerce to others.

I don't know how to defend the Corps of Engineers, perhaps due to a conflict of interest. My father was employed by the Corps of Engineers, and I am personally acquainted with the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Atchafalaya rivers and their tributaries. The Corps of Engineers gave work to desperate men during the Depression, used the best available technology to prevent floods and erosion, and provided hydroelectric power, creating lakes above dams for recreation.

I moved here from Chamois, Mo., a tiny town on the Missouri River downstream from Jefferson City. I am concerned for the safety of my friends and relatives. They are in my prayers and in my heart. These are exceptional, courageous, resilient people. Farmsteads are surrounded by equipment in sheds, harvest storage and lush fields of corn and soybeans. And in the flood plain.

Around cities, different uses are made of the flood plain. You can comprehend the obvious: businesses related to river commerce and those needing water in manufacturing. The flood plain is often the only land many people can afford for their homes.

It occurs to me that Bill Clinton doesn't need his jobs-and-stimulus spending package now. There are plenty of jobs and stimulus available to rebuild the middle-third of our country.

I'll tell you what I resent: having taxes pay for the L.A. riots! bills are for criminal vandalism, looting and arson. Human beings can learn to exercise control over their actions. Nature is unpredictable and beyond our complete control.

As a former resident of the flooded Midwest, thank you - all of you - who empathize with the flood victims and do what you can to alleviate their suffering. That is Americanism at its best. JOYCE L. PEDIGO BEDFORD

by CNB