Comment Submitted by Sheryl Massey

It appears that you are trying to raise the elevation of the flood plain such that we will be back in the flood plain even though we have not been in it for the last 30 years. And also, that you will change the standards for flood plain usage and require structures at a higher elevation. If that is the case, it will be nearly impossible for us to sell our property because the insurance cost will be prohibitive since we won't be built to the "new" standard. No bank will lend to anyone to purchase our property unless they have flood insurance or possibly not at all. First the federal government (Corps of Engineers) floods us due to their negligence now they want to make our property totally worthless! Your agencies have damaged us to the tune of around $100,000 even though we were above the flood plain and now it looks as though you're going to change the rules to make our property value drop even further. The elevation of the flood plain needs to remain where it is and the Flood Insurance Program needs to be continued as it is or every homeowner will see the value of their property drop significantly. We relied on the Corps to manage the river appropriately but they have failed us. You need to revise the Master Plan such that the Corps does not run the system so close to the edge and allows more room for reaction to weather and system changes. The main reason the Master Plan does not now allow for more cushion in operation is because they want to maximize the barge traffic at the expense of the upper reaches of the river. Had the Corps listened to their people in Pierre, SD in February and started releasing more water, our property wouldn't have been flooded nor several other properties flooded to the severity that they were. One foot less and our home would have been out of the water! Now they've changed the riverbed so much that it will make flooding much more of a possibility. This wasn't a natural flood as the picture below shows!