Flood Management and Rebuilding Plans Help Iowa Town Recover

When a forecast for record flooding was announced in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during the second week of June 2008, nobody could have predicted the impending disaster's magnitude. The Cedar River crested June 13, nearly 20 feet above flood stage and 11 feet above the 79-year-old record. Previous flooding in 1993 seemed, in retrospect, to be nothing more than damp basements and sewer backups.

The city pulled together to ensure uninterrupted service delivery to its residents throughout the incident, and an immediate recovery program was established. Local first responders had trained for decades because a small nuclear power plant, the Duane Arnold Energy Center, was only nine miles away. Consequently the public safety response resulted in no deaths or serious injuries. Thousands of residents and their pets were either rescued or evacuated.

Photo: The railroad tried to prevent this bridge from being pulled off its pilings by weighing it down with train cars filled with gravel. The attempt was futile as the Iowa River's strength during the flood was too much/Photo by Susie Shapira/FEMA

Fifth-Worst Natural Disaster

Cedar Rapids is located in east-central Iowa and is home to 122,000. The Cedar River bisects the city, and in early June 2008 flooding consumed 10 square miles -- 14 percent of the city. Water filled the first floor of high-rise downtown office buildings and historic brick storefronts.

More than 5,000 of the city's approximately 40,000 residential structures succumbed to the sewage- and debris-filled floodwater. Approximately 1,300 of those structures are beyond repair, and property owners are seeking demolition and buyout of their damaged properties. Evacuations over the course of two days displaced more than 18,000 residents and 9,000 employees. While these bare numbers may describe the magnitude of this disaster, they fail to illustrate the event's impact on the community's residents and businesses.

This flood's impact on public facilities is the fifth-worst national disaster in U.S. history, as determined by the value of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) public assistance funding. In all, 310 municipal facilities were damaged. Many significant operations in Cedar Rapids' Linn County -- including the district court, full-service jail, Sheriff's Office and county administrative buildings -- were evacuated and extensively damaged. Cedar Rapids Community Schools -- one of the state's largest school districts -- lost its administrative building, and maintenance and warehouse operations.

City Hall is literally located on a small island in the middle of the Cedar River and was evacuated two days before the river crested. Both the Central Fire Station and the Police Department were evacuated. The fire station was a total loss; it flooded to the ceiling. Damage to the police station -- a 10-year-old, state-of-the-art facility -- included flooding of the basement evidence room, locker rooms, electrical system and generator. The public works and code enforcement building, located more than half a mile from the river, filled with several feet of water. Ironically because the public works building was relatively far from the river, thousands of volunteers worked around the clock there filling sandbags for days before the flood. The main public library, a neighborhood recreation center and several park buildings also went underwater.

All communication methods were lost, including computer networks, telephone systems, and the 911 dispatch and radio system. The wastewater treatment facility was flooded and lost power, and nearly all well water sources for water treatment were incapacitated -- causing water production to drop to 25 percent of the amount necessary to supply uninterrupted residential and industrial service. The city was on the brink of entirely losing its potable water system.

Despite the devastation of various municipal facilities, all city services continued