Big Muddy Speaker Series

Presented by Robert Criss, PhD, Washington University

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

6. p.m. Social Hour at Big A’s Restaurant
7:00 p.m. Presentation

NOTE – The St. Charles Speaker Series is now changing to 7:00 p.m. 

At Big A’s Restaurant (in the back room)
308 N Main St. –  St Charles, MO
(directions below)

Presentation is FREE and open to the public!

As 2015 approached its end, a band of rain inundated the Lower Missouri, the Mississippi and the Meramec River watersheds, causing rivers to jump and a massive flood of water to converge on the St. Louis area. The extent of damage caused by the flooding that followed, according to Washington University professor Robert Criss, was exacerbated by manmade constructions in the floodplain of the Meramec River.

Dr. Criss has been called the “Pied Piper of Failed River Policy” and the “Mississippi Cassandra”. He has been warning for years that human encroachments on our river floodplains including higher levees, bank stabilization and floodplain development are actually making our flood peaks higher and increasing flood damage. After this winter’s unprecedented flooding, he crunched the numbers and published an article showing how flood crests were higher than previous models. Criss has concluded this is due to river and floodplain development.

Criss has shared his ideas at the Big Muddy Speaker Series several times. This time he’ll share what he’s learned from this flood event, and how he thinks policymakers should look differently at our rivers, floodplains and flood risk.

Directions

To Big A’s on the Riverfront, our host for the Speaker Series.

To get there from I-70

• Take I-70 to exit 229B – the 5th St. Exit
• Merge onto 5th St. headed north toward St. Charles.
• After about 1 mile, turn right on Monroe St.
• Turn left onto N. Main St.
• Big A’s will be on your right (308 N. Main St.) Additional parking is available in the rear.
• View on Google Maps.