I'm not sure what your news sources are, but you really should stop. Seriously man, your lack of accuracy there is terrible. A state of emergency was declared exactly one day after this thread was made. In either case, sandbags are still being put down even today. The National Guard was brought in, they used dynamite to blow up large blocks of ice that were jamming up the river. 3 million sandbags were deployed. National Guard helicopters were dropping salt and sand to channel the flood water. And coordination with other dams had to be done to limit the flow of flood waters to the area.
Now unless you think "the people of an area" has that kind of ability using their "personal responsibility" I would implore you to STFU.