2019 Flood

A novel type of insurance pool, parametric insurance, is designed to rapidly fund emergency response after natural disasters such as flooding.

Hundreds of St. Charles County homes damaged in 2019 flooding are eligible to be bought out after a more than $15 million in new federal funding. But, county leaders say the support will only allow for about 100 homes to participate.

The existential threat from flooding is also an economic one for the cities and towns that hug the country's major rivers. In total, flooding in 2019 along the Mississippi and its tributaries caused an estimated $6.2 billion in damage, including millions in the St. Louis region.

Many cities in the Upper Midwest have seen the river already reach its crest, as the water moves down through the system.

The federal agency had threatened taking away the system's accreditation in 2007 after the Army Corps of Engineers determined the levees might be compromised. Work over the past 15 years prevented that from happening.

Creating wetlands in farm country can reduce the severity of flooding downstream. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative and Ducks Unlimited have partnered to create more wetlands in the Mississippi River basin.

The STORM Act, signed into law on Jan. 1 by then-President Donald Trump, authorizes FEMA to provide $200 million for a Resilience Revolving Loan fund and allows states to offer low-interest loans to counties and cities for disaster mitigation projects.

An advisory group's recommendations to Gov. Mike Parson that state and federal agencies largely focus on repairing and strengthening levees will not do…

An advisory group Gov. Mike Parson appointed to study ways to address flooding has released a report that recommends state and federal agencies repair and…