The rare and invaluable Florida Everglades, Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ "River of Grass," is one step closer to recovery now that Charlie Crist, the state's governor, announced plans to buy more than 300 square miles of land used for growing sugarcane and restore it to its natural state. Environmentalists hope this move will restore a fragile ecosystem that supplies fresh water to the aquifers of southern Florida. They have described the proposal as the largest ecological restoration project in the history of the United States. The Everglades, basically a slow moving shallow river filled with unique flora and endangered fauna, once covered 4 million acres. It is now half its original size due to the diversion of water through ditches and canals for agricultural and drinking water purposes. "Half of it has gone, the other half is in an ecological mess," said Michael Grunwald, a journalist and author of "The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise."

This spring's flooding is underscoring the need for a national reassessment of the risks that come with development in floodplains. As wetlands are built up, the river is forced into a narrower channel, explained Charles Dowding, a Northwestern University engineering professor. "So even if rainfall levels remain constant, the probability of a high flood crest is going to go up," he added. Few of the levees that have swamped this spring were built to handle a 100-year flood. Many were built 30 years ago and some even date to the 1940s. As riverside development booms levees built 50 years ago for agricultural purposes are now asked to do the work of a residential or urban levee, said Eric Halpin, an Army Corps of Engineers special assistant for dam and levee safety. The floods show a need for a more robust and resilient levee system, Halpin added. If building continues on floodplains, safeguarding the Mississippi region could require a system that would protect against 300-year or 500-year flood levels from Dubuque, Iowa, all the way to St. Louis, according to Ron Fournier, a Corps spokesman. "There's no one agency that has the authority to make that happen through all the states and counties and towns," he noted.

A Northern New Jersey township is purchasing as least six homes along the Pompton River that it will demolish to build a walkway. The move is designed to not only make trails and open space available, but also to provide the community with much needed flood control. The Pompton River floods regularly and the mayor of Pequannock Township says the venture will give people who live along the river a chance to get out at a fair price while the city will get the property for flood retention and walking trails. Other North Jersey towns have plans to develop walkways along their rivers for recreation. In addition, several towns intend to remove frequently flooded riverfront homes and return the land to its natural state.

Some rain is good for crops, but this much rain and the flooding it has wrought have drowned fields and damaged crops, and now observers believe food prices will begin to reflect this spring's disasters sooner rather than later. Food inflation is increasing at its fastest pace in 18 years. Corn and soybean prices are nearing record highs with corn prices at the Chicago Board of Trade soaring to above $8 a bushel for the first time on June 16. Analysts estimate that flooded Iowa, Illinois and other corn-producing states might yield 15 percent less corn than last year. Some think the shortfall will be even larger.

Corn is one of the economy's critical commodities. It feeds cattle and dairy cows, it's cooked into breakfast cereal, it sweetens soda pop and it creates ethanol. The developing shortage is expected to increase competition for corn among farmers, food companies, ethanol refiners and exporters. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated a demand for 12.5 billion bushels of corn in the coming year. About 5 billion would be used for feed, 4 billion would be consumed by ethanol production, 2 billion would be sold overseas, and the rest would be used for food, seed and industry. The nation was on schedule to produce just 11.7 billion bushels. The shortfall, however, would be made up by corn grown in previous years and stored. But because of Midwest flooding, analysts think corn production could fall to about 11 billion bushels, draining supplies to a precariously low level.

Meat prices are expected to jump as producers cull herds or flocks in reaction to higher feed prices. Cattle futures in Chicago already set a record on June 17, when the April 2009 contract hit 116.875 cents per lb., the highest price ever. Even before the floods, the USDA predicted food prices would be up 5 percent this year. Much of the price increase facing consumers already is related to the sharp rise in prices for corn, soybeans and wheat in the past year, and to higher fuel costs.

As if returning to a flood-ravaged home weren't bad enough, victims of this spring's Midwest flooding must now deal with a noxious brew of raw sewage, farm chemicals, animal carcasses and fuel that not only smells awful but also could sicken anyone who wades into it. Emergency managers urged people to avoid touching or drinking the floodwaters. The sole wastewater treatment plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is inoperable and isn't expected to be up and running for months. That means raw sewage will continue spilling into the river and affect cities downstream. Iowa's environmental laboratory, University Hygienic Labs, said levels of E. coli bacteria jumped from pre-flood levels ranging from a few hundreds or thousands per 100 ml to a few tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands per 100 ml. Levels considered safe are zero for drinking water and 126 per 100 ml at a beach. One more thing: Millions of mosquitoes are now spawning in the acres of standing water.

With levees collapsing everywhere due to this spring's river flooding, it is probably no surprise to Midwesterners that the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees levees, lacks an inventory of thousands of them and has no idea of their condition. Many levees are old, some built by farmers themselves to protect their crops, and most built to protect against relatively common floods, not the big ones like the Great Flood of 1993, when 1,100 levees broke apart or overtopped, or the floods occurring this spring. Residents along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries have been fighting floods with levees since the 19th century. After a devastating 1927 flood, Congress got involved and approved construction of levees and reservoirs along the Missouri and Mississippi river basins. Today, about 2,000 levees are either operated by the Corps, or by local entities in partnership with the Corps, protecting major population areas. Thousands of others, however, are privately owned, operated and maintained. After Hurricane Katrina, Congress provided funding for the Corps to inventory the levees it maintains. That initial inventory is still incomplete. What has been discovered so far, though, is troubling. Corps levees in Missouri and Illinois that are supposed to protect against a 500-year flood fall short of even 100-year protection. Last year, Congress passed the National Levee Safety Act, which for the first time directs the Corps to inventory all private levees. But, as of now, Congress hasn't provided funding and won't likely do so until 2009 at the earliest.

Another wet and wild spring has Nebraskans confronting what could be the worst flooding in 15 years. Some residents are dealing with washed-out roads and swollen rivers caused by heavy rain and saturated soil, while others are stacking sandbags in an effort to control flood waters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is estimating the total cost of tornadoes, heavy winds and floods that have battered public and private property in 61 counties across the state since mid-May. This follows federal disaster aid already made available to Gage, Johnson, Morrill, Nemaha and Pawnee counties, parts of which experienced flooding from April 23 to 26, 2008.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for much of southern and parts of central Nebraska. Counties facing the danger of flooding include Butler, Saunders, Cass, Otoe and the southern half of Sarpy County.

Lowland areas along the Platte, Elkhorn and Missouri rivers reached flood level on May 31. The Missouri River was at 38.3 ft. on June 6. Flooding also occurred at the Big Blue and Little Nemaha rivers.

Salt Creek overflowed its banks in southern Lancaster County on June 5. Salt Creek at Roca, in Lancaster County, crested on June 5, at 20.94 ft., about 2 ft. above flood stage. Many roads in rural Lancaster County were under water on June 6. Floodwaters also covered country roads in several southeast Nebraska counties including Cass, Gage and Saline.

In Colfax County, parts of Schuyler were evacuated. The Red Cross said more than 200 homes were affected. About 15 people in the Nehawka area of Cass County were evacuated because of flooding at nearby Weeping Water Creek.

Residents of Battle Creek in Madison County were hurriedly sandbagging after 5 to 6 in. of rain fell. Water was over the road in several locations.

Standing water was reported in Page in Holt County, while residents of Lynch in Boyd County were without potable water after flooding caused the town’s main water line to rupture.

The National Weather Service is calling the flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a "historic hydrologic event" as the Cedar River over-topped its banks at 500-year flood levels. The river crested at more than 31 ft., far higher than in 1993 when it reached 19 ft. To the west, continuous rain and rising floodwaters along the Des Moines River caused an earthen levee to burst on June 14, forcing evacuations. Even precautions taken after the floods of 1993 didn't hold. After much of the University of Iowa's Arts Campus flooded in '93, raised walkways were installed that doubled as berms. Last week, these were quickly overwhelmed by the Iowa River's rising waters. Meanwhile, Iowa farmers watched their crops die as fields turned into lakes and harvest hopes vanished. Two million acres of soybeans are estimated to be lost along with 1.3 million acres of corn. Sixteen percent of Iowa's 25 million tillable acres are under water. This puts the state's total grain loss at 20 percent so far, with the threat of more rain to come.

Nebraskans have been treated to an unusual site this spring: A strong flowing Platte River full to its banks. Heavy rains in the western and central parts of the state even caused the Platte to overflow its banks for the first time since widespread drought started in 2000. For example, at Grand Island in late May, the Platte was flowing at nearly 9,000 cubic ft/sec, compared to just 435 a year ago. The heavy flows are expected to help improve habitat for threatened and endangered birds that rely on the Platte. In addition, more water is flowing from the North Platte into Lake McConaughy at a rate of 1,100 cubic ft/sec compared to 235 last year on the same date. This increase should help the state's largest reservoir gain water after seven years of drought.

If you live in a flood zone and your community is set to be mapped, check your mail because you'll soon be receiving a letter from FEMA. The U.S. Senate approved in May an amendment requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency to notify property owners who are located in a flood zone and inform them they must buy flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program. The amendment was introduced because FEMA included some properties in its new flood zone maps without notifying owners. The amendment was included in a larger bill that authorizes $400 million per year for flood map modernization

A controlled flood surged through the Grand Canyon earlier this spring to determine if such high water flows can help reconstruct some of the canyon's beaches and sand bars. These soil habitats are instrumental to ecological systems and native fishes that have suffered since the building of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. The dam stops all sand, and as a result numerous native fishes and wildlife are on the brink of extinction. Reconstructing or at least managing the environment in which these species can survive has become important to environmentalists and engineers alike, making this experiment significant for the future of Grand Canyon ecology and wildlife.

Could the massive devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta have been reduced through coastal preservation? At least one official thinks so. Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of South East Asian Nations, noted that expanding coastal populations and widespread mangrove degradation played key roles in worsening the cyclone's impact. "The mangrove forests which used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, big waves and storms, and the residential area..all those lands have been destroyed," he said. Mangrove roots hold together the shifting silt and other debris that flows down a delta. By deterring erosion, mangroves prevent the debris from washing inland and damaging agricultural land. Mangrove branches and roots may also reduce the surging energy of a massive storm wave as it approaches inland.

The past is no longer a reliable base on which to plan the future of water management, according to a prominent group of hydrologists and climatologists. Writing in the journal Science, the group noted that until now, water managers have operated on the premise that historical patterns could be counted on to continue. But human-induced changes to Earth's climate have begun to shift the averages and the extremes for rainfall, snowfall, evaporation and stream flows. These are crucial factors, according to the group, when planning for floods or droughts, choosing the size of water reservoirs or deciding how much water to allocate for residential, industrial and agricultural uses. "Climate change magnifies the possibility that the future will bring droughts or floods you never saw in your old measurements," said lead author Christopher Milly, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Snowpack this spring in the Colorado mountains is the highest it's been in 11 years. Substantially increased snowpack levels are being measured at some 3,000 sites in 12 states monitored by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service. And that means more runoff in both the westward-flowing Colorado and the eastward-flowing Arkansas. In fact, Lake Powell, stretching more than 100 miles across Utah and Arizona, is expected to rise 50 feet from its current depleted level. This winter was the region's wettest since 2004-05. The reason was an unusually strong jet stream that pushed winter storms farther across the West than expected. Cold weather then allowed the snow to build up rather than melt away. More than a half-dozen significant rivers originate in the Colorado mountains and flow through at least 10 other states including Nebraska. Forecasters say the threat of floods caused by melting show is still unclear; however, a sudden spike in temperature could push rivers and streams out of their banks.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed a new law in April that creates a Water Resource Coordinating Council that will direct the management of the state's water resources. The Iowa Surface Water Protection Act is the result of more than two years of work by the Iowa Watershed Quality Planning Task Force. The council will coordinate 12 state agencies to assess Iowa's water resources. It will also develop a marketing campaign to educate and engage Iowans about the need to take personal responsibility for water quality in their local watershed.