From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Is the Midwestern flood damage worse than it needed to be?

Hello again, I'm Arminolny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most. Midwestern farming has been a bright spot in a declining economy, but record

rainfall and massive flooding are turning success into disaster. Widespread development on natural

floodplains leaves less land to soak up excess water. That leads to big trouble downstream.

When the levees are overtopped, those new developments are threatened with inundation.

On to the point, have local and federal officials failed to learn the lessons of flooding in decades past?

What will that mean in the future?

On reporter's notebook later on, same-sex marriage in California. First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and

Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Warren Alney, back with To the Point. This year's Midwest rainfall and flooding is the

worst since 1993. That was the worst in living memory up until then. On To the Point,

has recent development guaranteed that the devastation will be more extensive than it needed to be?

We'll update the damage

and economic consequences that will be worldwide, is the region ready for the challenges of global warming.

On reporters notebook, California courts, the voters, and same-sex marriage. First this news update

in London today after talks with President Bush, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain will freeze the assets of the biggest bank in Iran. He also promised to increase British troops in Afghanistan.

Daniel Dombie reports from Washington for the Financial Times, and Daniel Dombie, many thanks. Good to have you with us.

Good to be here. It's reported that the other countries in the European Union also will freeze the assets of the

Melly Bank, again, the biggest commercial bank in Iran. How much damage will that do to Iran in its

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