Meanwhile, the National Flood Insurance Program is literally under water. It’s $24.8 billion in debt and set to expire by the end of September if Congress doesn’t do anything about it.

This week, as much of Missouri builds towers of sandbags, Lightbody is in Kansas City along with dozens of other flood-plain planners for the annual conference of the Association of Flood Plain Managers. The conferees would have done well to cancel their panel discussions and drive to St. Louis, where they could see a fragmented region offering a case study of how to mismanage flood plains.

The Pew poll on voters’ attitudes toward flooding points to a path forward on some solutions to the flood problems that plague not just the St. Louis region, but plenty of other places in the country, too.

Among the findings:

• 64 percent of voters support the idea of local governments taking action to protect repeatedly flooded properties, including creating more wetlands in floodway areas to reduce flood risk.

• 75 percent of voters approve of buyouts of repeatedly flooded properties.