Response to McCook Lake flood testing local GOP loyalty

Recall that an Earth hating former governor of South Dakota built a house in a swamp that flooded resulting in a generous self-reimbursement from insurance coverage underwritten by his own company then blamed the US Army Corps of Engineers. 

That happened in 2011 to McCook Lake, too and everybody in the area knew it was going to happen again so it did in 2022. In 2022 South Dakota was tied for first place with three other horrible red states where the loss amounts from disasters likely caused with human influence a billion+ dollars in damage since 1980. North Dakota had 45 billion-dollar climate disasters since 1980 and my home state had suffered 38 and is still getting pounded. 

Despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency not having finalized flood risk the State of South Dakota aimed floodwaters at McCook Lake because Republicans know moral hazard pays the bills. Many residents lacked flood insurance when then-Governor Kristi Noem diverted the polluted Big Sioux River to McCook Lake in June then went to a campaign event in Tennessee. Now, because FEMA did not classify the area a floodplain even the mayor of North Sioux City is considering buying out people who lost their homes and the State has a $15.4 million plan to make some of that a reality.

Union County is overwhelmingly Republican but there is an exceptional amount of resentment among voters so how has county government escaped scrutiny for permitting homes around an oxbow lake with a history of flooding? 

The Ikes own most of the south end of the lake.

In the wake of the disaster, residents petitioned to overhaul the North Sioux City government. Voters replaced the eight-member alderman system with a new mayor-commission format. That allowed voters to elect an entirely new commission and mayor in one election. And in April, a new mayor and commissioners were sworn in. The state Department of Game, Fish and Parks awarded a $1 million contract to Three Oaks Inc. to remove debris and sediment from the lake, said the department’s Kip Rounds. [‘Like we don’t exist’: One year after the flood, a sense of abandonment lingers in McCook Lake]