ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the "lessons learned" within the framework of topics investigated: the weather factors causing the extreme rains; the climatic and hydrologic aspects of the flood; the environmental consequences; the impacts on agriculture, transportation, the economy, and society; and past, present, and future policies relating to floods. The flood was the nation's major news story of 1993 and one of the worst weather-related disasters in American history. Human activities abetted all the major environmental impacts credited to the flood, which will require considerable attention over time to resolve. A record flood such as that in 1993 produced several largely unexpected impacts and a few responses that expert would have been hard pressed to imagine before the event. The chapter concludes with a description of three areas in which many key issues raised by the flood remain unresolved: flood policy, the environment, and human reactions.
