What was done
Within the context of Canadian responses to the catastrophic 1997 flooding of the infamous Red River of the North - which also devastated Grand Forks, North Dakota in the United States - the author focuses on two aspects of flood-related emergency preparedness: (1) the functions and effectiveness of control structures, and (2) the roles, responsibilities and effectiveness of legislative and other operational measures.  In our review of this work, however, we concentrate on the historical perspective presented by the author.

What was learned
The Red River has "a high natural potential for flooding," according to the author, which should not surprise anyone; for, as he notes, "it is located on a former glacial lake bottom."  Nevertheless, and in contradiction of sound reasoning, people continue to flock to such locations to build; and that is why, the author says, the scale and magnitude of loss in recent decades due to flood disasters is considerably higher than it has been at any other period of time.  That's right.  It's not because we're having more and larger floods that the economic losses from flooding are becoming ever greater; it's because there is ever more capital development being put in harm's way.

To emphasize this point, the author notes that although the 1997 catastrophic flood of the Red River was indeed the largest of the 20th century - with an estimated unregulated discharge downstream of the Assiniboine River of 4,536 m³/s - it was not the largest flood to have occurred in historic times.  In 1852, for example, there was a similar catastrophic flood with a recorded discharge rate of 4,620 m³/s; and in 1826 there was a super-catastrophic flood that had a recorded discharge rate of 6,300 m³/s, which was nearly 40% greater than that of the 1997 flood.

What it means
Contrary to contemporary statements of climate alarmists and various U.S. and Canadian government officials that the Red River flooding of 1997 was a sign of global warming, the historical record indicates that such was not the case; for greater floods occurred in the prior century, when it was considerably colder than it was in 1997.  This fact should always be kept in mind when we hear global warming being blamed for natural disasters of all types.  The historical record needs to be consulted before jumping to such conclusions; for whenever it is neglected, the conclusions reached are typically demonstrated at some later time - such as this - to have been false.