The other side of the story

I thought in the four months that have passed since I have been able to be in my home that my feelings had calmed down. That was until I read "Plowing forward" in the special section of "Farm and Field" in the Dec. 8 Southeast Missourian.

Mike Geske's comments: "The idea that the Corps of Engineers could blow up the levee and flood all that land was almost incomprehensible, that they could consider doing that, even realizing the spillway was designed for that purpose many decades ago."

Mr. Geske, I have lived in my home for 79 years, and even in the 1937 flood it did not have water in it. On April 27 I was boating out of this home with my dog and a few possessions that I thought would be enough for a few days. It was incomprehensible to me that the Corps of Engineers would play politics and not blow the East Prairie levee when the water reached 59 1/2 feet on the Cairo gauge, as they had done in 1937.

The insurance adjuster returned with me to my home, by boat, on May 10. When he investigated, he said to me, "Ma'am you have $100,000 in damages." I had flood insurance, but have you any idea what a sinking feeling that was?

I also lost 20 acres of wheat on a farm that had never had floodwater. This is the other side of the story.

LOUISE PLANERT OGG, Unity, Ill.