Emerging Urban Flood Management Policy Changes
Mayor T.M. Franklin CownieCity of Des MoinesDecember 8, 2010
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
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‘93 FLOODS: Gravity Isn’t Enough
‘08 FLOODS: Levees Involves Standards
‘10 FLOODS: Design Capacity Exceeded
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Flood Impacts: Court Avenue
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Flood Impacts: Birdland
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Flood Impacts: Birdland
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Flood Fighting
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POST 1993 IMPROVEMENTS
• $77 Million in improvements
•$33 Million in Federal Funds
•Reconstruction of two major levees currently underway
•32 pump facilities & two additional pump stations to be completed in 2011
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500 Year Flood Map
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WHERE FROM HERE?
• Greater Pump Capacity for System and Levee Protection
• Separation of Combined Sewers
• Strategic Acquisition of Floodway Property
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Birdland Levee Reconstruction
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FEDERAL PROCESS CHANGESS
• Simplify the paper work process– paperwork and process for mitigation grants is excessive, and
a huge time burden for local communities
• Streamline the Post Disaster Hazard Mitigation Process for buyout properties
– takes a long period of time before real assistance is available, and often leaves property owners with very few options at a time when they need immediate assistance
• Allow local program expenditures to be reimbursed if FEMA guidelines are followed.
– local match is difficult to budget for, allow some form of repayment
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FEDERAL PROCESS CHANGESS
• Pre-flood mitigation programs are preferable, and more are needed
• Encourage watershed-wide approach to flood management, and allow regulation to be imposed that causes development to consider and mitigate the downstream impact
• A means to offset the local impact of purchase/maintenance of City-owned flood plain
– As more and more property is bought out and deed restricted and returned to the flood plain, it adds more and more property that a city owns and must maintain, while further reducing taxable property values.
Emerging Urban Flood Management Policy Changes