There's the floodplain, the 100 year floodplain, and the 500 year floodplain. The idea is that the 100 and 500 year floodplains are for the extremely rare weather events, that will probably never happen in your lifetime. The problem is in some of these places, in Nebraska and other states along these rivers, there are towns that have seen 500 year floods three and four times in the last 20 years. That's not a 500 year flood anymore. We have to start talking about these things in different terms, and we have to start planning for them.

Writer Ted Genoways explores disaster politics, agriculture and austerity in flooded northeastern Nebraska - as the consequences of climate change, neglected infrastructure and Trump's trade war wash over rural America, a new political vision is needed to connect and address the crises leaving lands and lives underwater in the Grain Belt.

Ted wrote the article River of No Return for The New Republic.