Mississippi River

Special Mention: The news evolves everyday, but the flooding of the Mississippi is an historic event, at least as severe as the flooding of the 1930s. The intense floods, resulting from heavy snowmelt, heavy rain — and, according to American Rivers, poor flood management — have resulted in the flooding of entire communities, as federal officials were forced to decide between rural and more populated areas as they breached levies to alleviate flooding and prevent catastrophe on a greater scale than they unleashed. The devil's bargain might not have been necessary if flood management and building in floodplains was better managed.