Supporting Documents for "How to Totally Eliminate Flood Damage," May 30, 2013

Notes:

(1)Return to blog essay, "How to Totally Eliminate Flood Damage," May 30, 2013.

(2) As of June 6, 2013, this page contains a Press-Citizen editorial, May 31, and opinion columns by Iowa State Senator Joe Bolkcom, June 5, and Todd Dorman, in the Gazette, June 6.

(3) Copyright. This copyrighted material is reproduced here in the belief that it satisfies the letter as well as the spirit of the Copyright Act, Section 107, regarding "Fair Use." Although an item is reproduced entirely or in substantial part (factor 3), there is no commercial purpose, intention, or effect on my part (as the blog produces no revenue); it is a part of a commentary, and serves an educational, rather than commercial, purpose (factor 1). The material involves news, history or opinion regarding public affairs, rather than an artistic purpose, such as music, poetry or short stories (factor 2). Finally, there is no resulting adverse economic impact on the copyright holder; indeed,the only impact might be a positive one, however relatively insignificant, as a result of bringing attention to the publication by way of the use, crediting the source, and providing a link.

Editorial, "Learning the lessons from the Flood of 2008"
Iowa City Press-Citizen, May 31, 2013

Our local, state and national leaders finally are coming to realize that we need to:

• Rely more on a river’s natural floodplain rather than on levee and pump systems.

• Decrease the people and property in harm’s way by buying out land at-risk of flooding.

• Provide more flood buffers by returning at-risk land to forests and wetlands.

• Provide homeowners with better information about the risks of living in floodplains.

• Change the taxpayer-funded National Flood Insurance Program so that it provides no new incentives for new floodplain development.

However one describes the type of neighborhood Parkview Terrace has become since the flood of 2008, it’s much different than what property owners and city officials envisioned when the area was developed half a century ago.

Back then, the hydrologists and other experts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still were full of ambitious plans for damming rivers and streams and constructing levees so that once-flooded areas would never be flooded again.

After all, the Coralville Dam had just been built in 1958. And developers and zoning officials still remembered the promises that the Corps of Engineers had been making for years about the dam’s effectiveness once completed:

• That “the river level would not be allowed to raise to more than a 9-foot stage.”

• That “all river property would escape flooded conditions, including university buildings adjacent to the river, the town of Coralville and private property adjacent to the river.”

• That not even City Park would ever be flooded again.

The University of Iowa bought into those promises as well and started making plans to transform some of its riverfront property into President Virgil Hancher’s vision for a unified arts campus.

All that construction in the proximity of a beautiful, riverside park attracted even more neighbors who built even more homes, and a thriving neighborhood developed.

The flood of 1993, of course, showed the folly of such mid-century hubris and exposed how those earlier engineers and city officials had been deluding themselves.

But the right lessons were not fully learned from that event. And even as homeowners in the floodplain still were rehabbing their water-logged homes, local and state officials started deluding themselves yet again with the notion that the 1993 flood was as bad as it ever could get.

It wasn’t until the flood of 2008 that the basic truth finally broke through the our collective mental dam: We don’t need to prepare for if the next big flood comes, we need to prepare for when it comes.

Our local, state and national leaders finally are coming to realize that we need to:

• Rely more on a river’s natural floodplain rather than on levee and pump systems.

• Decrease the people and property in harm’s way by buying out land at-risk of flooding.

• Provide more flood buffers by returning at-risk land to forests and wetlands.

• Provide homeowners with better information about the risks of living in floodplains.

• Change the taxpayer-funded National Flood Insurance Program so that it provides no new incentives for new floodplain development.

Those lessons came too late for Parkview Terrace residents. Over the past five years, the city has bought out many of the homes throughout the 500-year floodplain in the neighborhood — but those buyouts have not necessarily been according to a time schedule that would help keep the homeowners afloat financially.

As a result, some homeowners have decided to stay and watch their neighborhood transform around them.

Now the area is much more open, with wide swaths of green space between scattered homes. Although some of those empty lots have been better maintained than others, the whole area has much more park-like feel than before.

For anyone driving through the neighborhood for the first time, there is little evidence of the 94 houses that once stood in those empty spaces. The ground has been leveled, and the grass (for the most part) has grown.

And we have no doubt that, over the course of another generation, the Parkview Terrace neighborhood will be more fully integrated into City Park. But the remnants of the neighborhood need to continue to stand as a monument to what we should have learned from the lessons of 1993, 2008 and now 2013.

After all, those lessons are all the more important now that Parkview Terrace is flooding once again and forecasts show Coralville Lake is likely to breach the dam’s spillway next week.

So especially as Iowa City and Coralville move forward with their plans for the Riverfront Crossings, Old Towne and other developments near the river, we have to ask if those lessons have been ignored yet again.

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Joe Bolkcom, "How Many More Floods Will It Take For Us To Do More?"
Iowa City Press-Citizen, June 5, 2013, p. A13
As we commemorate the fifth anniversary of the historic 2008 floods and look back on the amazing amount of recovery work that has taken place in communities across Iowa, our recent extreme rains tell us more work lies ahead.

In the midst of the wettest spring in 141 years of record keeping, preceded by a significant drought in 2012, our extreme weather roller coaster is providing the kind of ride you just want to get off. Unfortunately, we appear destined for a rougher, scarier ride ahead. Recent record rainfall across the state is preventing corn and soybean planting, washing excessive amounts of precious top soil off our bare and vulnerable landscape and threatening businesses, homes and public infrastructure in its path.

While the challenges of current flooding are significant, every community impacted is better prepared and had less damage due to efforts undertaken after 2008. Fewer structures are in harm’s way and many of those that are, have been made more flood proof. Public infrastructure has been hardened, and we are better at predicting river flows and alerting citizens and businesses of imminent danger.

It may be hard to believe that record flooding has returned so soon, but Iowa’s leading climate scientists have been telling us that these extremes are here to stay. Due to a warmer planet, wet years will be wetter and dry years will be dryer and hotter.

Clearly the cost to all taxpayers to rebuild community after community struck by natural disasters year in and year out, will be astronomical. Will the nation be able to afford it? As extreme weather disasters mount, what will we do without: health care, education, public safety? The financial cost for the tornadoes and flooding just in the last couple of weeks will be in the billions.

There are many things we should be doing. Here are my top three ideas to consider:

• Respect our rivers. Give them more space to spread out when they need to. Stop building and filling in areas where we know it is going to flood. Remove all repetitive loss structures from the floodway. Only Iowa City and Cedar Falls now restrict building in the poorly termed 500-year floodplain. Every community in Iowa should do the same. Speed up investments in flood-proofing structures that can’t be relocated. If you are worried about your home or business being flooded, buy flood insurance now.

• Iowa farmers are feeding the world. That may not be possible in 25, 50 or 75 years at the rate we are sending the world’s most precious top soil downstream. Just as communities are investing in more resiliency in town, farms need to be fortified to hold and slow down more extreme precipitation. Seeing the damage to Iowa farms over the past month, there is a lot of work to do. It’s time for more active Iowa agricultural leadership on this issue. It is time to get serious about soil conservation on every farm.

• Finally, climate science experts tell us we need to dramatically cut our energy use and be far more energy efficient. It is long past time for a progressive national energy policy that deploys all forms of renewable energy and energy efficiency. A new energy policy will create jobs and begin to address the dire need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation. This should be our No. 1 domestic priority for years to come.

How many more major floods (and droughts) will it take for us to do more? My eyes tell me we should have a far greater sense of urgency in adopting policies that will confront extreme weather and cut wasteful energy consumption so we have a good answer for our kids in 20 years when they ask; what did you do to make the world safe for us?

At this point, we do not have good answer.

_______________
Todd Dorman, "Protecting Us From Floodwaters Requires a Global Response"
The Gazette, June 6, 2013, p. A5
[Todd Dorman's column was not available online when this page was posted; it will be added when it becomes available.]