If you watched the national news lately, you probably saw that my hometown was flooding. It’s a small town with a little over 6,000 people. The kind of place where you can’t go anywhere without seeing someone you know. It’s a place I’m proud to call home.
The reason why news of the Pocahontas flooding caught your attention probably wasn’t just because our town was flooding (unless you’re a local), it was probably because you heard that the levee along the Black River broke last month. Oh no! The levee broke! I got texts from friends across the country that took the time to ask if my family is okay because they heard that the levee had broken, and I appreciate that. But what people don’t understand, people across the nation seeing this on the news (and even some in Pocahontas I’m afraid), is that the levee failure spared Pocahontas. That’s right, the levee failure near Pocahontas was a good thing for the city!

The Black River levee blocks the river’s natural flood plain and forces all the water into the city of Pocahontas
(see annotated maps below).

What does the levee protect you ask? Farmland. (With apologies to the few homes and business scattered through the floodplain.)The worst of the flooding IN Pocahontas came before the levee failure.

The worst flooding IN Pocahontas, came before the levee failure.

You probably saw pictures of Pocahontas Wal-Mart flooded (news eye candy!)… was flooding before the levee failure. There was water over the city airport runway… occurred before the levee failure. Aerial images showed the town community college was surrounded by flood waters, you guessed it, before the levee failure. Even the homes in east Pocahontas (Robil Addition) were flooding before the levee failure. The flooding would have almost certainly been worse in east Pocahontas had the levee not failed. Have you seen the vast amounts of farmland that are flooded only because the levee failed!? Imagine if ALL that water came directly through the city. How much higher would the water have been inside Wal-Mart? Would the college have fully flooded?

I bring this to your attention so that something can be done about this. This is not the first time this has occurred. In fact, it’s the third time in the past 10 years (2008, 2011, 2017). What was the answer after the 2008 flood? Repair the levee and improve levee maintenance. And after 2011? Build the levee higher!! After 2017? …I urge the citizens to fight for a new plan and for city and county officials to thoroughly consider a new plan.

If we build it higher, the next time the river rises another foot higher in Pocahontas bringing another foot of water in Wal-Mart, in Black River Tech, in our banks, our restaurants, our churches and homes. A foot higher would be considerably worse given how close it just came to many buildings. Building the levee higher and stronger is NOT the answer unless you want to continue to make flooding in the city of Pocahontas worse.

I offer my solution:

We do need a levee as our farm land is important. And that’s it, we need a plan that not only mitigates the flooding in Pocahontas but also doesn’t set the levee system up to fail which then rapidly inundates the farmland leaving it in worse shape than it would have been had it just been submerged. Not to mention a plan that would allow water to recede from upstream farmland faster. The levee needs multiple spillways (like those along a lake dam), set to overflow when the river reaches 26 feet at the Pocahontas river gauge. The water would then spill over into ditches that run south through the floodplain. Areas along the river in Pocahontas would still flood, but most businesses, etc., in the city would not. Extensive farmland would be inundated only when the river began to reach extreme levels. However, the water would be released in a much slower, more controlled manner allowing less erosion damage from rapidly flowing water. Furthermore, the water levels in all locations would be lower (more area to spread the water over, the lower the levels).

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,
Ryan Difani