Iowa City about to be flooded any moment now, Feds f'd them over!

[cascadiance]

I say this with a heavy heart and wish I could be nearby to help them right now sandbag the banks of the Iowa River downtown where I used to go to school. It sounds like this flooding may eclipse the 1993 floods they had and break 100 year records...

And this from The Daily Iowan today, noting that the administration and Congress didn't fund a study that could have helped them be better prepared than they are now for this pending disaster. Once again our government is failing us like they did in Minnesota and in Katrina:

http://media.www.dailyiowan.com/media/storage/paper599/news/2008/06/10/Metro/Flood.Study.Never.Done-3380260.shtml

Flood study never done
Christopher Patton - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 6/10/08 Section: Metro


Media Credit: Amy Andrews/The Daily Iowan

A proposed and rejected project to comprehensively examine areas near the Iowa River after the 1993 flood may have allowed more accurate predictions this year.

The project was known as the Comprehensive Flood Impact-Response Modeling System. It would have allowed people living along the Iowa River to track how the discharge rate from the Coralville Reservoir would affect the water level at any given location immediately up or downstream.

Charles Newsom, a UI associate professor of physics who closely follows issues relating to the Coralville Reservoir, said the system, had it been funded, would have made it clear exactly how much financial damage any given severity of flood would cause.

...

Ron Fournier, a spokesman for the Corps, said it was unable to move forward because the federal government never provided the necessary funding. The cost would have been approximately $3 million, he said.

"Unfortunately, we just don't have the funding to do that sort of study," Fournier said. "Congress has to provide it, and it didn't in this case."

...

[malaise]

1. Has FEMA arrived there yet?

New Orleans, Iowa, anywhere else, same neglect.

[cascadiance]

2. One would hope... I think Army Corp of Engineers are there...

Here's the city's "River Watch" page...

http://www.icgov.org/default/?id=1874

I guess earlier they were thinking the dam was going to overflow its spillway last night, and then today. It might be tomorrow instead now.

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

[malaise]

6. Thanks for the links n/t

[madrchsod]

9. there are two more storm fronts due till the end of this week

it really is`t looking good for the entire iowa,illinois,and wisconsin water shed.


east of the Mississippi river---- Wisconsin river will crest into the Mississippi , the Rock River following a few days later, and then the Illinois River....it`s not going to be a good spring and summer along the Mississippi

[Sequoia]

14. And Wisconsin

June 8...Oconomowoc, WI Now that looks frightening. I so sorry for all those who lost their homes. Wonder if any were in foreclosure and if it matters? If your home goes into foreclosure do you still have to pay back the loan? Even if it gets washed away? -

[krkaufman]

22. That's some serious act of god stormcloud action n/t

(re: foreclosure... maybe the insurance would pay the original cost)

[DemoTex]

3. Bu$h wants to know if the fish are biting ..

Too bad they relied on Bu$h. He is as reliable now as he was as a F-102 pilot in the TANG.

Sorry for the gallows humor. I feel for the good people of Iowa City and their plight. Now, like NoLa, they will probably have to endure the staged photo-ops of this vapid, self-serving little man.

[cascadiance]

12. At least their new Democratic congressman Loebsack is helping out now!

A picture of Congressman Loebsack working with the volunteers building up sandbags (on the left here):



http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/19726579.html

[4_TN_TITANS]

26. Now that's class... a politician actually working for the people n/t

[kestrel91316]

4. I am SOOO glad my niece is gone from there for the summer.

Sadly, I think her stuff might be in storage there........because she is due back in the fall to finish her MFA at the Writer's Workshop.

[babylonsister]

5. I wonder if any Nat'l Guard are left there? I wonder if anyone else wonders. nt

[Skidmore]

20. Iowa's National Guard has been in Iraq so much that it just

downright stinks. They are a medical unit.

[babylonsister]

23. That's what I figured. nt

[Blue Gardener]

7. If it weren't for volunteer sandbaggers

Things would be much worse. Iowans are pretty good about helping each other out. Check out the Iowa forum for pics of flooding in Decorah.

[cascadiance]

27. Hopefully they've been sandbagging enough... Water is pouring over the dam now...

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/19788769.html

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/NEWS/536434426/1006

Looks like the National Guard is being deployed now across the state...

http://www.kimt.com/news/local/19784834.html

[bullwinkle428]

30. My gf and I were just walking around on the spillway

about a week and half ago!! (I live in nearby North Liberty)

For those unfamiliar, that's the area in the lower part of the picture, and that water is now streaming into in ancient creek bed (lower right corner of picture) that was unearthed in the 1993 floods, revealing tons of fossils from something along the lines of 35 million years ago!

Once the water began to come over the spillway, they lost any control of the water flow down the Iowa River, which is on its way to Iowa City from there... :(

[formercia]

8. Bush Gang will hire one of their cronies to do a study after the fact.

They have to figure out better ways to extract the maximum amount of profit from other peoples' misery.


Disaster Capitalism at work.

[XOKCowboy]

10. Did they have a Gay Pride Parade planned?

I'm sorry and I don't mean to make light of this situation. I was just thinking of what the righties said when Katrina hit NOLA. They were too stupid to save themselves, it was God's punishment, etc. What will they say about this emergency. It's also sickening to me that our government has sunk to such depths that it doesn't see saving people from natural disasters as it's problem.

Good luck to all involved. I'll keep you in my thoughts.

[cascadiance]

11. Not sure whether they have any "gay events" planned now...

They did mention some arts events, etc. being moved to different locations or canceled. Iowa City has always had one of the highest per capita gay populations in that part of the midwest, so I'm sure Hagge'd have some fuel for his delusions too.

[bullwinkle428]

31. Actually, the GLBT population is supposedly one of the highest

in the nation on a per capita basis, according to some sources!! I know it's certainly a very GLBT-friendly town, judging by attitudes I've encountered.

I guess the wingnut assholes now have their script practically written for them... :banghead:

[cascadiance]

13. Evacuations are starting now...

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/19730294.html

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/19730499.html

[Blue Gardener]

15. The flooding that is going on is just incredible

So many areas of the state are under water it's amazing. Even the floods of '93 weren't this bad. Words cannot describe the scope of the devastation. A lot of the people who were devasted by the tornadoes a few weeks ago are now dealing with flooding. Mother Nature is pissed about something this year.

[Skidmore]

16. My husband has been manning water pumps and sandbagging for

the last two days in IC. I can't believe that this reservoir was allowed to overflow the dam again. It took years to rebuild after the 1993 flood, and this is worse in some ways. Then we didn't have the hellish severe storms we are having now, just slow steady unending rains.

[cascadiance]

17. I remember it was not that long ago you had tornadoes too going through downtown...

Saw the aftermath when I went back to visit not long afterward.

Kudos to your husband for helping out!

[bullwinkle428]

32. It kills me to not be able to help - I just had shoulder surgery

under 2 weeks ago, and got to take the sling off my shoulder a few days ago. My hat's off to everyone out there trying to help...this is a great community.

[Thothmes]

18. Why wasnt the study funded and conducted

during the Clinton years after the 93 flood.

[cascadiance]

19. Not sure... Perhaps a Gingrich Congress didn't want funding that going through?

[cascadiance]

21. Here's another study that attributes many of the current problems to global warming.

and too much building on the floodplain (both underpowered levees that make things worse when they are there and then break, and more development) that didn't take this dynamic into account.

http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/03/19/gertz/

Tempting Fate
Fifteen years after the Great Flood of 1993, floodplain development is booming
By Emily Gertz
19 Mar 2008

...

Lessons Learned ... and Forgotten?

The Flood of 1993 was one of the most destructive in the recorded history of the Mississippi Basin: nearly 50 people were killed, over 70,000 evacuated, and 50,000 homes damaged on over 17 million acres (close to 27,000 square miles) across nine states. Over 16,000 square miles of working cropland was flooded, at a loss of more than $5 billion. All told, the flood caused around $16 billion in damage.

In the first blush of post-flood shock, some local and federal officials decided that trying to hold back the Mississippi River was likely to be a costly and never-ending enterprise. Instead of depending on levees and other structures for protection, some thought, it was time to move people's homes and workplaces off the floodplain and cede ground to the river.

...

The corps argues that flood-control structures prevented $19 billion of damage in 1993 across the nine states affected. But is the confidence that these protections inspire part of the problem? "Most infrastructure on the floodplain would not be there were it not for the historic reliance on levees," Pinter noted in Science.

" thinks that the levees are going to protect the people behind them, and the businesses behind them," says Kusky, "because there are calculations based on the assumed risk of floods on the hundred-year floodplain and the five-hundred-year floodplain." But, Kusky says, "there's a problem with that calculation." The problem -- shocker! -- is global warming.

...

[lonestarnot]

24. Guess we can't phone Jerry and ask who the hell God is hate'n over there.

So, what did Iwoans and Wisconsians do now?

[Irishonly]

25. OMG

Iowa City is such a beautiful historic place.

[dawgman]

28. and Centralia/ Chehalis....

Those cities in WA State were decimated by flooding due to lack of fed funds to control potential for flooding.

But6 at least we spent trillions on the war of lies in Iraq.

[malaise]

29. This is heartbreaking

How will these people cope with this mess? Why are they paying taxes again?