In this piece from the Atlantic Cities, author Sarah Goodyear explores how the Great Flood of 1993 impacted the Midwest.
The article states: “In a series of inundations that lasted for months, the floods covered 30,000 square miles across nine states, causing $15 billion in property damage, killing more than 30 people, destroying entire towns and millions of acres of crops…A subsequent cost-benefit analysis showed the magnitude of the return on the investment made in disaster mitigation. ‘Every dollar we spent saved five dollars in future losses,’ said James Lee Witt, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. ‘And it saved lives. That’s a big deal.’”
