Keith Hawkins
Dr. Shea
Research Team 120
6 September 2024
Multimodal #1
Water is the most prevalent source on the planet. Over 70% of the entire planet is covered by water so any type of water issue would most likely be important. I want to discuss water infrastructure, specifically the concept of building roads and businesses to be able to handle heavy rainfall without flooding.
Two years ago, in a town close to where I am from called Florissant Missouri, there was a heavy storm that caused a massive flood on a business strip called Florissant Meadows. The Florissant Meadows shopping center was a strip mall off the busy street of Lindbergh. Stores in this strip mall included Save A Lot, Walgreens, Dollar Tree, CVS Pharmacy, a DMV, a ST. Vincent De Paul thrift store, and more. On July 26, 2022, a storm flooded this strip mall and put businesses out for months and years.
This is a picture of what the flood looked like outside of Walgreens from (nytimes.com)
I believe that this situation can be classified as a wicked problem. It is understood that in order to be a wicked problem, a situation must have six characteristics: a vague problem definition, an undefined solution, have no end point, be irreversible, unique, and urgent.
The Florissant Meadows flood is a vague problem because it breeds an abundance of issues not just for the business owners but also for the community. Members of the local Florissant community relied heavily on stores like Save A Lot, Dollar Tree, and CVS for their everyday living. Save a lot and Dollar Tree were cheap and easily accessible ways for people to get groceries and more specifically produce without having to travel more than a couple of miles. The second closest available grocery store is located a little more than a mile down Lindbergh. That store is harder to reach for community members who don’t have access to motor vehicles. The thrift store is one of the only places in the area to buy affordable clothing within two miles of the strip mall.
There is not one singular solution to the Florissant Meadows flood. The strip mall flood resulted from the area’s infrastructure and Coldwater Creek behind the strip mall overflowing. The surrounding area of Florissant Meadows is shaped like a gigantic bowl. When the heavy storm hit, all the water was stuck in the bowl’s center. A big creek being in the center of this bowl did not help the situation. A solution could be to move all the business to a different location so this can’t happen again. But it is just not that simple. Some of the businesses are small local family-owned businesses and not big chain businesses. Those owners had to fight hard to open their stores again but still have that risk of losing everything.
This is a picture of an empty Coldwater Creek from (alchetron.com)
To continue from the last sentence, there is no endpoint to the problem with Florissant Meadows. Another heavy storm can pass by and flood the strip mall again and hurt the community members and businesses. Any day or night their operations can be slowed or shut down depending on how mother nature feels.
Here are some stories of some of the local business owners who were affected by the flooding.
Businesses reopen at Florissant Meadows Shopping Center | ksdk.com
Florissant businesses closed due to floods; seeking help and answers | FOX 2 (fox2now.com)
This flood did not just affect the business strip. People’s homes were also flooded that night.
Another characteristic of a wicked problem that ties with this situation is that the effects are irreversible. There is no room for error when trying to fix the issues at hand. Homes and places of businesses are affected by floods in this area. Failing to solve the problem can result in the repeated devastation of lives in the community. The method of trial and error simply does not work in this situation.
What makes this problem unique is the fact that it stems from multiple sources. The infrastructure of the area being shaped like a gigantic bowl is already an issue for flooding by itself. To make matters worse, there is a creek in the middle of the big bowl to add more water to the flood.
The last characteristic of this wicked problem of the Florissant Meadows flood is how urgent the issue needed and still needs to be addressed. The businesses have been opened back up and are running currently. However, if another heavy rainfall storm occurs like the one that took the businesses out two years ago, the exact same results will take place. The locals that live in that area cannot afford to be constantly at flood risk whenever there is a storm.
The Florissant Meadows shopping center is crucial to the local community members and their way of life. This strip mall flooding is a wicked problem for the community because of the abundance of problems for the community it causes, there not being a specific answer to its problems, the issue does not have an end, damages and failures to help fix the problems are irreversible, the issue has unique circumstances that cause the problems, and it was and still is an urgent issue.
Works Cited
Alchetron. “Coldwater Creek (Missouri River).” Alchetron, 21 December 2023, https://alchetron.com/Coldwater-Creek-(Missouri-River). Accessed 14 September 2024.
Errebhi, Ala. “Florissant businesses closed due to floods; seeking help and answers.” Fox2now, Fox 2 news, 7 August 2022, https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/florissant-businesses-closed-due-to-floods-seeking-help-and-answers/. Accessed 14 September 2024.
KSDK NEWS. “FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers open in Metro East Friday.” YouTube, YouTube, 28 October 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiH7WNl0ELM&list=PLtxwUv5r5kpWJaksskn6tQitQUtl0f95Z. Accessed 14 September 2024.
Mackey, Mercedes. “Businesses reopen at Florissant Meadows Shopping Center.” KSDK, 11 December 2024, https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/i-couldnt-give-up-florissant-business-back-open-after-julys-historic-flood/63-442af086-8c6f-4790-9a6a-23529d02a5a6. Accessed 14 September 2024.
The New York Times. “How Have You Been Dealing With Extreme Weather in the U.S.? (Published 2022).” The New York Times, 27 July 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/us/extreme-weather-callout.html. Accessed 14 September 2024.