The Glade 4.0

You say that, and while I don't disagree with you, all it takes is ONE SOB STORY for the entire country to be up in arms....one minority family who has had that house that was built by their great grandcestor who was a freed slave and is now owned by the descendant who is a christian single mother to 12 children with disabilities or something like that.
No politician wants to be put in that position.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Not really. The concentrations we'd be talking about during a flood are not very significant.

In a town, OMG yes they are (sewage, household chems, warehouse and industry chems, automotive chems, etc), but not really in main channel flood waters, or rural areas.

So, when you see people wading through flood waters in a city, keep in mind that the sewers have backed up, the industrial areas have all been flooded, etc.

Thanks, you, you ... civil engineer, you!

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

That's a great story, but I'd probably leave the Christian part out if you want any sympathy to be relayed by the mainstream media... :p

I was just trying to cover all my bases there.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

But the river itself is the third toxic in the country (though I believe that statistic is generally measured at the mouths or confluence points of rivers and tributaries, so I'm not exactly sure where the Mississippi would fall prior to joining the Ohio, which is one of the top 2 as well), including notable heavy metal toxicity as well as high e. coli concentrations, in addition to fertilizer runoff.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Sure, but E. Coli is bacteria, and is not going to be sucked up by crops. Unless you run out there, pick up a tomato and gobble it down during a flood, you'll be fine. Heavy metals will be bound to and just stay in the soil. Again, these are not taken up significantly by crops. It could be bad for critters living in the soil. Fertilizer runoff, well, flooding farmland would just be putting it back where it came from. Besides, we are talking about highly diluted concentrations, if we're talking about a flood of this magnitude. Spread out over 130,000 acres.

The Mississippi is highly pollutted, but the primary concerns are nutrients (good for crops) and sediment. Bacteria's a concern, but won't harm farmland.