For shrinking Mississippi River towns, frequent floods worsen fortunes

Devastating flooding, driven in part by climate change, is taking an especially damaging toll on communities that once thrived along the banks of America's most storied river. . In regions growing slower than many other parts of the country, where towns are struggling with job loss and fewer resources, flooding is accelerating the exodus. Consider West Alton, Missouri, on a bend of the Mississippi near its meeting with the Missouri River.

He recalled being awakened by a noise during that 1993 flooding. “Jumped up out of bed and was standing in water knee-deep beside the bed,” Allen, now 80, recalled. “That’s a rude awakening, I’ll tell you that.” The government bought out nearly all of the homes on Ely Street and in many other neighborhoods vulnerable to Bear Creek. People scattered. Some, like Allen and his wife of 63 years, Rachel, left town, though they moved back about 12 years ago and now live high on a hill.

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Takeaways from AP examination of flooding's effect along Mississippi RiverFlooding has pushed people out of their homes near the Mississippi River at a roughly 30% higher rate than the U.S. as a whole, according to data provided exclusively to The Associated Press by the risk analysis firm First Street
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