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, ,I Damage estimates for the Midwest flood show marked inconsistencies. No federal agency is responsible for developing accurate assessments of flood damages. nor is funded to do so. The affected states and the Federal Emergency Management Agem::y (FEMA) conduct preliminary damage assessments to t!c:tenllinc if a Presidential disaster declaration is warrameu and (() estimate the resources necessary for response and recovery. Once sufficient damage has been identitied that justities a declaralion and once FEMA has a general idea of how resources should he allocated, federal agencies have liule il1l.:entive (() expend resources updating preliminary asst:sSIHl::llts. Resourct:s afe instead focused un tracking and projecting expenditures. The NWS is not funded (() eslimate ((Hal damages hut does so (0 suppon other missions. The USACE. which in Ihe past eSlimated tlood damages, is no longer funded to do so. The Revit:w Committee is com;erned lhat decisions involving hundreds of millions of dollars onen are being madt: withoul syslematic assessments of flood damages and without a t.:h:ar underslanding of the nalUrt: allll t:xteIH of lhose damages. Agriculture Agricullural d:unages from Ihe Flood of 1993 had two primary t.:aust:s: excessive moisture thaI prevt:llted planting and reduced yields ill upland and floodplain areas ami at.:lUal tlooding (hat destroyed t.:rops and severely d:unaged many acres of lertile floodplain c.:ropland. "is diftkult to separate the fac.:wrs that intluent.:ed crop production during Ihe 1993 growing season in the 9-slate region. They included rain, low temperatures. early frost. and tloods. More than 70 percent of the crop disaster assistant.:e payments, however. were made to coumies in upland areas d 1l0{-~~ ill main stem river floodplains. n Agril:ultural damages direc[ly allrihuted (0 actual flooding lOtaled more thall $2.5 hill ion, with an estimated $1.4 hillioll in lost corn and soybean sales. Most of these losses wen: reslricted to 1993 as (he productive capacity of [h~ land was unc.:hanged. There wt:re, however. damages 10 field fertility and fann infrastructurt: of at least $100 million. Each state suffered difkrelH types of losses. For 16 , THE FLOOD OF 1993 example, Missouri with 34 percent of its cropland (5.1 million acres) in the floodplain, had crop damages from flooding on 3.1 million acres causing $247 million in lost sales.'4 In lIIinois, only 3 percem of the state's corn and soybean acreage (312.000 and 276.000 acres respectively) were lost to nooding with a loss in sales of$153A million." Minnesota fanners losl $500 million in crop sales. but most of the damage was caused by wet conditions rather than riverine flooding. 16 D:unage from scour and deposition affected 455.000 acres on the Missouri River floodplain representing 20 percent of Ihe flooded cropland along Ihe Miss~ri and Mississippi rivers. I? . Drainage ditches were filled with sediments, and other agric.:ultural infrastructure was deslroyed. Almosl 60,000 acres have sand deposition more than 24 inches thick and reclamation costs to restore fertility to damaged cropland are approximately $190/acre. I~ I f cropland restoration requires removal of sand. il will COSI approximately $3,200 to remove each acre-foolofsand.'9 It will cost-$10.8 million to remove sediment and dehris from ditches.20 St:c.:ondary impac.:ls of agricultural losses to a local economy vary substantially with the dependeIlce of that ec.:onomy on the agricultural sector. Immediate losses are due 10 lost sales and unemployment. In the long run. the assessed value of land that sustained long-lenn damage may he reduced which will affecI Ihe property tax base of affet.:ted conununilies. Another secondary effec.:[ was a reduction in c.:rop- support payments aher prices adjusted to the reduced