Caught between a Rocher and a hard place

The Mississippi River does not like to be contained, and occasionally reminds mere mortals that spending hundreds of millions of dollars can temporarily contain but not necessarily control its waters.

Still, the communities that spend more to keep it in its place do so at the increased risk of the communities downstream that can’t command the same resources as we saw during the Flood of ’93. That is where Prairie du Rocher, population 600, finds itself.

The village spent 20 years and $3.1 million to bring its levees up to the 100-year standard set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Work ended in 2004, but in 2006 FEMA changed the rules based on levee failures during Hurricane Katrina.

Prairie du Rocher has spent $42,000 and needs another $62,000 for a study to prove its levees meet the new FEMA standards. Otherwise, decertification of the levees would lead to high-risk insurance coverage that would cost more than most house payments. That would kill the small, rural river town.

When life gives you lemons, sell lemonade. You have to admire the small-town gumption that has residents selling lemonade, selling T-shirts and seeking donations: efforts that so far have raised $18,000.

They are borrowing the rest.

The next time you find yourself heading to Fort de Chartres you might want to stop in Prairie du Rocher to buy some of their lemonade. FEMA might have sent them the lemons, but the rest of us sent them the water.

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Caught between a Rocher and a hard place."