In the sixties, a series of flood walls and levees were created in Saint Louis in order to protect the region from the rising Mississippi River. In 1993 the river flooded in the worst US disaster of its kind. These walls and levees likely kept the damage from massive flooding from becoming worse. But as KMOV reports money is needed to replace almost two dozen gates and add about 70 water wells.

I no longer think that New Orleans would have been saved had the population been white. More definitely would have been saved, there would have been more of a sustained response….but it would still resemble the shell that it is now. I’m not a betting man, but I’m thinking that Saint Louis is likely next. And given that the majority of the population that lives UNDER the flood plain are white (white outmigration from Saint Louis concentrated in this area), the worst damage will be born by this community. If I had the time I’d develop a running tally of places like this, just to give a sense of scale to the type of infrastructure spending that no one in the federal government is willing to spend within the nation’s borders.