Repairing the floodwall

Part of the "Mississippi River Tales" mural completed by creator Tom Melvin and his team of artists earlier this year in downtown Cape Girardeau may have to be repainted in a few months.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to spend more than $9 million repairing the floodwall the mural is painted on. None of that money -- $2 million for design work and $7 million for construction -- will go toward repainting the mural.

Part of the wall near the north end of the floodwall -- a long way away from the murals -- will be rebuilt. And the electrical systems at two downtown pumping stations will be improved. Expansion joints -- some within the murals -- in the floodwall, which was completed in 1964, will be replaced or resealed. A rock berm will be added to shore up an aging railroad retaining wall in front of the floodwall.

We love the mural, but making sure the wall can still protect the city and its residents from a catastrophic flood comes first.

In the early 1950s, before construction of the floodwall began, the Southeast Missourian advocated building a wall that would stand the tests of time and the ravages of nature rather than simply meeting some minimum government standards. Although the wall that was built was not as grand as the one the Missourian envisioned half a century ago -- complete with a national highway on top of the wall, for example -- it has proven its effectiveness many times. The economic benefit of keeping river floods away from property, buildings and contents would, if calculated, be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the wake of this year's hurricanes that have hit Florida and the Gulf Coast, we'll settle for a floodwall repaired to withstand the worst. And we'll continue to enjoy the new murals that have brought so much attention to Cape Girardeau's riverfront.