Morrison off the deep end

Illinois Leader columnist Joyce Morrison is usually so off the mark that disproving even her most basic assertions is as easy as shooting endangered carp in a barrel. But just when you think she couldn't get more paranoid, alarmist and all out wacky in her anti-environmentalism, she kicks it up a notch. In her latest column, she seems to speculate that the Great Flood of 1993 along the Mississippi River was induced by man-made radiowaves from Alaska! And why would anyone want to cause a flood of such a disastrous magnitude? Morrison posits that it may have been a plot by the environmentalists to drive people out of the land along the Mississippi to create a "Heritage Corridor." You have got to be kidding me! Joyce, don't you think the reason the government might want to restrict new development in flood planes is because these areas dangerous, perilous places to build things? If you don't buy that, just ask the people who lived in the 72,000 homes that were destroyed or seriously damaged, or any of the 35,000 businesses that suffered property damage. In fact, everything the flood touched was ruined -- roads, cars, phone poles, farms, cemeteries. The flood cost $16 billion in damages. Fifty people died because of the flood. And it might surprise you to know, Joyce, that even the things you hate the most -- wetlands -- were destroyed by floods. I know the concept of wetlands being destroyed by water is probably a little hard to grasp, but it's true. So if you want to believe that the floods were part of some environmentalist plot to take back the river, go right ahead. But the reality is, some years it rains hardly at all, some years it rains all the time. When it rains all the time, it causes flood. When it floods, people who choose to live in the flood's path suffer. End of story.