Similar situations exist along most inland waterways where development has been permitted on land that was reclaimed from nature, albeit temporarily. Since land adjoining any body of water is always more desirable, its owners have more clout with various government bodies by virtue of their wealth. They use that clout to prevent any economic harm to themselves, as always, and to socialize the costs of poor decisions.
In 2011 there was a billion dollar flood along most of the Missouri River that resulted from the Corps of Engineers leaving too much water behind dams to mollify business and home owners who wanted higher water levels. When the spring runoff from the mountains was higher and faster than models predicted it caused the Corps to have to purposefully flood areas downstream from the dams or see those dams swept away.
One of the businesses lobbying the Corps was owned by a relative of a Missouri Congressman and engaged in barge shipments. The only barge traffic seen above the Missouri state line in decades was that needed to repair the shipping lane that wouldn't be needed if not for the contract to keep the lane open. Negating that contract would have meant a two million dollar loss to an influential business owner, so the water was kept high to provide for flow over the dry summer months.
You probably didn't hear much about one of the largest flood events ever in the Midwest because the culpability of a government agency clearly catering to a private business connected to a Congressman was, to say the least, embarrassing. As the flood played out, there were numerous other stories of the wealthy and well connected gaining benefits and protections not afforded to the "common folk" along the way.
One upper Midwest Governor even deployed the national guard of his state to sandbag a property he had a financial interest in while ignoring the plight of farmers and homeowners just a few miles away who were wiped out. It is no wonder that such a major event received so little press at the time, considering its cause rooted in corruption and the corruption that followed to protect the well connected and wealthy.
