In the wonder of creation God gave us ears to hear, eyes to see, a mouth to speak and a mind to reason with. Yet here, on this glorious Sep. 7 morning, in spite of all the indications He has given, record rains, record discharges from area dams, the highest lake levels in history, and the negative economic impact of the much higher than normal lakes levels it appears, at least from a public perspective, that our community leaders either don’t care or they don’t know enough to ask “Huh?”
It’s truly amazing. From a perspective point of view regarding this year’s historic lake levels, if Noah had been acting with the same speed and apparent concern displayed by the majority of our communities leaders, both elected and non elected, he would have been asking himself, “Huh, does God really want me to build an ark?” as the first drops of the 40 days of rain to follow fell. Unfortunately, by that time it would have been too late.
Incredulously, after all the warning signs and the actual impact upon our community of this year’s historic high water there is no public record of any effort by any community leader, organization, governmental or otherwise, to take the lead in organizing an effort to mitigate or prevent a reoccurrence of the flooding and high lake levels that impacted the Branson area this year. It’s almost like no one even knows or cares enough about the situation to even ask, “Huh?”
It seems as if everyone is waiting for some supreme power to do something. Unfortunately, everyone is waiting on the wrong supreme power, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) while the real supreme power, God, has provided, it would seem, an adequate warning of what could happen if things are not changed.
The ludicrous part is not the rain itself. That was an act of God. The problems caused by the extremely high water levels for such a long period of time were, in the opinion of an Ole Seagull, caused by the Corps and what they did, or didn’t do to manage the water after it fell.
When the Ole Seagull is talking about the Corps he is talking about an organizational philosophy that resulted in an almost rote following of a plan of water management that has been substantially modified from the original plan implemented in 1952 to the potential detriment of the Branson area. A plan, which, an Ole Seagull would bet, was based on intensive study at the time, considered fair, and provided a margin of safety, both in terms of personal safety and economic benefit, to all it covered, including the Branson area.
Unfortunately, the plan as it exists today is not the original plan. It is a plan that, in the opinion of an Ole Seagull, is based on political clout exercised for the maximum benefit of the agricultural interests down stream. A clout that has controlled the plans evolution into its current state while the Branson area didn’t even know enough about what was going on to say, “Huh?”
The net result of the application of the plan is Beaver Lake is at approximately 1127.51 feet of elevation, about 14 feet higher than it was at this time last year when its level was 1113.5 feet; Table Rock Lake is at approximately 919.49, about 7 feet higher than it was at this time last year when it’s level was 912.4; and Bull Shoals Lake is at approximately 680.13, about 30 feet higher than it was last year when it’s level was 651.8.
What happened between this time last year and the end of June this year is a matter of record. Unfortunately so is the inactivity of our community’s leaders to formally and publically institute actions to prevent or mitigate a reoccurrence. How sad it would be to end up in the same or a worse situation in the future all because our area’s leaders stood by and said, “Huh?” instead of taking a leadership role in trying to prevent such a situation from arising in the future.
“But Seagull, it’s the Corps we’re fighting, we can’t win against them.” The agricultural interests in Arkansas sure did and one thing is for sure, very few have won a fight by standing outside the fray asking, “Huh?”
