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“To Flood or Not to Flood – That is the Question”

By Scott Lee

With the winters around here comes snow – often a lot of it (well, most winters, anyway).  This winter will likely be no different, although Climate certainly has altered expectations and it’s hard to predict just what our winter will be like.

Another pretty sure thing around here is that when that snow melts, we also have to face the fact that we will likely have to deal with the Mississippi flooding at the end of the winter.  We’ve had a couple of dandies the past two years. 

The 2023 spring flood turned out to be the third worst flood around here in history.  At that time, I saw a list of the “Top 10 floods of All Time” in the Trempealeau (La Crosse, Winona) area.  It was rather depressing as I read through the years of those floods, as I realized that I had lived through nine of the ten.  That is a sad reminder of two things – 1) I am getting old, and 2) again, climate change is NOT a hoax.

The 2024 flood came in the summer, which is much less common.  It was not caused by the runoff of the melting snow coming down from the north, but rather due to huge amounts of rainfall.  This flood moved into the top ten as well so I have now lived through 10 of the top 11 floods in history (I just missed the 1880 flood.  Yet again, another frightening example of climate change NOT being a hoax.

Fortunately, the refuge has taken some major flood prevention improvements this fall so the entry road will likely not have to be closed due to flooding nearly as often (check it out if you haven’t been out there recently).  However, if this troubling trend continues and we all don’t start making necessary changes, the occasional closing of the refuge road, although sad and frustrating to all of us who love visiting there, will be a minor inconvenience compared to everything else we will face.