Since the very first Europeans came to the North American continent they have been building settlements along the rivers. This made traveling and transporting trade and sale goods faster and easier than by land. It was a source of fishing and water supplies for nearby residents. This is still much the same today.
In our time, even though we have roadways all across our nation, the rivers are still used to transport things on huge barges. It is hardly used anymore to transport people at all except for the summer vacationers and those who love to fish, swim, and boat. The rivers were and still are a necessity for so many things. Farmers sometimes use them to irrigate crops, but planting crops too near rivers can be a mistake when they decide to flood.
Flooding from rivers is all too common during certain months of the year. Some years will go by with only moderate amounts of rainfall and a river will flow normally and have no flooding. When it rains in the North or they have large amounts of snowfall in the winter months, it can cause the river levels to rise and flood further downstream. Many areas along riverbanks have levees in place to hold the water back when it rises to dangerous levels, but levees are breached all the time when they are not large enough or strong enough to hold back a raging river.
When rivers break over their levees, it can be devastating for those who live in nearby communities or have crops planted there. The river can come raging down quickly and submerge everything in its path with little warning. Thanks to the accuracy of our weather forecast these days, it is easier to predict there is a risk for flooding, but controlling it and being really prepared to battle it is usually not very affective when the water is already on the way.
For those who choose to live in areas where there is more likely to be flooding, their only real defense is to be adequately insured with flood coverage. They can never know from one season to the next how bad flooding could be. Sometimes it could only be a little and then such as happened this spring in the Midwest, it could happen unexpectedly and continue off and on for weeks. The rivers can be a friend or a foe for many. No one tells Mother Nature what she can or can not do and living near where her wrath is likely to show up is just a risk that we take.
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