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Reply to "Harvey--Irma--Maria. ??"

I did go back to find when the Mississippi River flooded in the St. Louis area so they called it a 100 year flood.  Going back as far as I could find data - it happens more frequently than you would think.  In fact on an average of every 8 years we have (what is called) a 100 year flood.  So it is relatively normal for this to occur.  Once we had what the press referred to as a 100 year event twice in three years.  And three times the water got to within 2 feet if the top of the levy's.  When I first got here the old timers then - talked about where the water flooded before they built the levy's.  If they had not built those levy's I might be living on the bluffs a few miles further east.  It was the frequency I experienced and the talk of those old timers that got me looking into the data.  So I think that the "100 year" label has gotten to be a media thing and not rooted in actual history. 

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