Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are deep, and contain enough water to create havoc along shorelines, but only those shorelines that are composed of lose soil. Any waves inland will soon recede, so encroachment into the bordering land will not be vast. Due to the widening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the waters will drain more readily, lowering the Great Lakes somewhat, eventually. Salt water, where it meets fresh, shares itself to the extent the tidal water flows in and out. The Mississippi has salt marshes only along the deltas, as the water from the Mississippi is the greater factor. The flow, thus, is out, not in, except where the tide affected the marshes along the delta. Thus, in the widened Seaway, salt water will flood the Seaway until it meets the narrow mouth of the Seaway, some miles up the Seaway from where it empties today. It will not travel up in to the Great Lakes. Consider that these lakes today have a force of water, and empty, and will in future, from drainage. This will continue.

One should assume, rule of thumb, when along rivers or inland lakes:

• Take the worst case in memory, of flooding. Raise that water level up again so it has risen not once, but three times. In other words, if the worst case is a 40 foot rise, then assume a 120 foot rise. So this rule of thumb applies to river flooding, but to cover the sloshing that may occur for inland lakes, a different baseline must be taken.
• Inland lakes seldom flood their banks, or drain. Inland lakes may slosh, but are unlikely to rise to the level that rivers will, in that rivers are a temporary store for water, and inland lakes by their nature, a permanent store. But as a rule of thumb one can take their depth, divide by 5, and assume that level of water to be sloshing inland. In every case, then the surrounding land must be analyzed, as to safety.

Are there also rivers flooding nearby, so the wet lands will be soggy and unable to absorb the slosh? Is the land surrounding the lake dry and hard, so that no water will be held by the soil in mud, but all will become runoff, water on the move? Are the high spots around on rock, such that it will not melt, or is it soft soil that will become a mud-slide, and join the muddy water rather than hold the frightened who are clinging to its topside. Each area has different characteristics, and an analysis must be made accordingly. If you are 50 miles inland from one of the Great Lakes, but in any area that has soft soil so that being 100 feet high does not put you on rock, then you may find yourself part of the muddy Great Lake, being pulled back in a back-slosh. Thus, the variables are endless, and cannot be addressed by ourselves, but must be dealt with by the guidelines we lay out, by those who would survive themselves!

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