The Urban Midwest's 'Dangerous Friends': At the Confluence of Flooding Rivers, an Environmental Movement, and a National Insurance Progra

During the decades from 1950 to 1980, a combination of environmental, social, and political forces converged to sharpen the challenges and contradictions of Americans' relation to their built and natural landscapes. As the nation suffered ever-increasing flood damages along its urban rivers, Americans also grew more aware of the complexity of environmental threats and the value of environmental protection. At the same time, President Lyndon Johnson's postwar rise to power and his plans for a "Great Society" impelled the establishment of numerous areas of federal intervention in environmental issues, including a National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This study examines urban flood events in the nation's heartland---the Midwest---in light of both the advent of federal flood insurance and the rise of a national environmental movement. I use the local responses to events in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan to examine how postwar Americans resolved conflicts between land development rights and economic progress, on one hand, and community and environmental security, on the other. To frame these responses I first examine the ideas behind the emerging environmental movement, including the growing conflict between protection from and protection of the nation's rivers and coastal waters---the "dangerous friends" that Johnson referenced in a 1966 letter to House Speaker John McCormack. Second, I explore the origins and structure of the NFIP, which proponents crafted to control floodplain development, and its correlate, government disaster assistance. Finally, I examine flooding and flood responses from a community perspective, elucidating the tension between local realities and national and state goals and policies. I argue that the postwar non-structural and participatory approach to "controlling" flooding operated within an implicit economic, political, and social framework. This study reveals the "dangerous friendship" not just between rivers and people, but between recurring environmental phenomena, federal policy initiatives, and environmentalism, all of them operating within the limits of a capitalist economy and a federalist political system.