EDITORIAL: Preparing for the coming floods

June 02--"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining," said President John F. Kennedy. Wait until the rain is falling and it's too late.

Rain fell in record amounts last year along the Great Lakes watershed, causing more than $100 million in damage along the south shore of Lake Ontario, the lowest of the lakes. A water resources bill making its way through Congress would include funding for a $12 million study intended to identify infrastructure improvements to prevent flooding all along the Great Lakes basin, including Lake Ontario.

After the massive flooding of 2017, and the destruction it wrought along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, now is the time to find out what lessons can be learned before the rains return.

New York's Democratic senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, are both pushing for approval of the bill, which last week won approval from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which Gillibrand is a member. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, has been another vocal supporter of the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study.

For the long-term economic health of our region, we need to hope that our Capitol Hill representatives can get the bill across the finish line.

What's at stake? Some 4.2 million people live within two miles of the 5,200-mile coastline of the five Great Lakes. The Great Lakes' maritime economy generates some 293,000 jobs and is valued at $17.3 billion. The recreation and tourism economy in the region is worth $14 billion.

The floods last year inundated homes, broke through break walls, closed roads and eroded shorelines along Lake Ontario.

Collins, a Republican from Clarence whose district includes some Lake Ontario towns in Niagara and Orleans counties, in January wrote a letter to the Trump administration seeking funding for the Great Lakes study. Sixteen House members from the Great Lakes region, including Rep. Brian Higgins -- a Buffalo Democrat -- signed Collins' letter.

"This study would be the first of its kind, making it immensely helpful to shoreline businesses and homeowners who can so quickly experience devastating financial losses during severe weather," said Collins. "After a year of unprecedented floods along Lake Ontario, the shoreline economy was hit hard and individuals are struggling to pay for damage to their property."

Schumer and Gillibrand say they will work with the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure the study is funded. The Army Corps would perform the study, which would be paid for by both the federal government and by Great Lakes states.

President Trump so far has not designated any funding for the study, but Collins has close ties to the president and vows to keep up his efforts.

The Moses-Saunders Dam, on the St. Lawrence River, is where the water levels of Lake Ontario are regulated. Officials there adjust the levels, trying to anticipate and react to floods, and they often catch flak from politicians if they don't react quickly enough to mitigate a large rainfall or extra runoff from the Niagara River, which affects Lake Ontario.

Whether human errors magnified the problems last year or they were caused by a perfect storm of natural causes, we know in the era of climate change that weather events once thought to be once-in-a-century are now all too common. Property owners along the lake would be wise to understand that changing weather patterns are likely to put them at continuing risk.

Climate change can't be stopped by throwing extravagant sums at the problem, but the $12 million needed to study how to protect Lake Ontario shorelines would be money well spent.

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