It seems to happen with varying intensity every year somewhere in the midwest yet people loose everything....the government, as well as insurance companies spend millions if not billions on rebuilding and dissaster relief.
Why not build a canal system that runs west from the Mississippi river and either catches another river or turns South itself somewhere near western Kansas?
If they wanted, they could make it big enough to have boat traffic just like the Mississippi up and down. I'm not saying it should be as big as the Mississippi, just big enough for two way traffic.
Right now western Texas is struggling to fight fires with short water supplies. A few years ago I heard a story on the news that farmers in western Texas were burning the spines off of cactuses so they could feed them to their cattle in lieu of water because of drought conditions.
Im sure that the money would be very well spent and probably pay for itself in savings over a small number of years....plus create jobs.