Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative

Many cities are already investing in nature-based solutions, such as removing pavement, building marshes and making room for rivers to flow. Now, St. Louis is looking to learn from Missouri’s neighbors in Dubuque, Iowa, on what the city can do with the River Des Peres.

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 11th annual Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative meeting comes at a critical moment when a changing climate is ratcheting stress on the nation's largest river network.

The multimillion-dollar projects could serve as blueprints for similar ones at five locks and dams on the Mississippi north of the St. Louis region under the corps Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program.

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.

A new online data and mapping tool went live today, and its creators hope municipalities in flood-prone areas will use it to plan for and respond to…

Residents of towns along both the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River are all too familiar with the effects of flooding on their…

Civic leaders along the Mississippi River are bracing for near-record flood levels in the coming days and weeks.Mayors in Missouri and Illinois say…