News

In Florida, Turning a Blind Eye to Hurricanes

By Damien Cave and Yolanne Almanzard – The New York Times – August 15, 2008 Miami – The hurricanes are coming. Carlos Alvarez, mayor of Miami-Dade County, cannot say when or how severe they will be, but every public speech he gives now includes a warning. For full story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/us/16hurricane.html?hp

Coastal Wetlands Provide Enormous Economic Benefits to Society

Authors: Robert Costanza, Octavio Pérez-Maqueo, M. Luisa Martinez, et. al. – Ambio Journal – July 21, 2008 A new study published in AMBIO reports that U.S. coastal wetlands are extremely valuable in that they annually provide storm protection services worth $23.2 billion. The researchers compiled data on hurricane damage costs, wind speeds, and wetland areas and performed statistical analyses to calculate the value of coastal wetlands. These natural capital assets act as “horizontal levees” that absorb storm energy, thereby reducing hurricane costs. To read the entire study, “The Value of Coastal Wetlands for Hurricane Protection,” AMBIO, 2008, Vol. 37(4):241–248, visit http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/AMBI-37-4-241.pdf   For just the abstract, go to: http://ambio.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1579%2F0044-7447%282008%2937%5B241%3ATVOCWF%5D2.0.CO%3B2

Ducks Unlimited addresses Illinois Flooding

Randolph County Herald Tribune – July 10, 2008 In the weeks that follow a flooding event, authorities are providing immediate assistance to those suffering from the disaster, but they are also looking for answers to help provide residents with better protection in the future. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed how essential wetlands in coastal areas can be to reducing the impact of flooding. The recent flooding throughout the Midwest has made it evident that more wetlands throughout America’s Heartland could be beneficial as well. For full story, go to: http://www.randolphcountyheraldtribune.com/full.php?sid=10602

Corps responds to Midwest flooding

More than 280 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees are supporting flood fighting efforts in Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Kansas. State support includes providing liaisons in State Emergency Operation Centers, flood fight technical assistance, and on-site community support. As of June 24, the Corps has delivered 57 truckloads of water to logistical staging areas in Iowa and Illinois, and deployed more than 13 million sandbags, 2,893 rolls of plastic and 121 water pumps to the region. 10 locks and dams along the Upper Mississippi River have closed and severely affecting navigation. With some rivers not expected to crest until later this month, USACE anticipates more levee and dam overtopping and breaches. For more Corps’ flooding information, visit: http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/

Mississippi River Reopens as Flooding Wanes

By Bob Burgdorfer – Reuters News Service – July 7, 2008 "As far as navigation, the river is open," said Steve Farkas, an engineer in the US Army Corps of Engineers' St. Louis office. Lock 25 near Winfield, Missouri, north of St. Louis, was the final lock to reopen and it reopened Saturday morning, Farkas said. Taller river traffic will continue to be impeded until a railroad drawbridge, which spans the river about 60 miles upriver of St. Louis, is repaired later Saturday, the Kansas City Southern railroad said. For full article, go to: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49213/story.htm

West Union culverts should alleviate seasonal flooding

By Ray Pitz – Beaverton Valley Times – July 3, 2008 Soon motorists using West Union Road won’t have to worry about sloshing through torrents of water churning across the roadway between Deerfield and Kahneeta drives. That’s because work has begun on that low-lying portion of the Washington County road with plans to raise the roadbed, allowing for wetlands water to flow underneath. For full story, go to: http://www.beavertonvalleytimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=121504831314870200

Costs and Risks Are Escalating

By Carolyn Kousky – St. Louis Post-Dispatch – June 30, 2008 If it seems to you that there has been more damage from environmental catastrophes recently — from hurricanes to wildfires to the current flooding — you're right. Direct costs from natural disasters (adjusted for inflation) have been increasing in this country for the last several decades. Of all natural disasters, though, floods account for more lives lost and more property damage than any other. In the St. Louis region, the risks of flooding have been increasing, and they may get worse. For full story, go to: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/news/editorialcommentary/story /b03f2fbb295ea9cb862574760000c2bf?OpenDocument

Heavy Rains Again Soak Parts of Flooded US Midwest

By Michael Conlon – Reuters News Service – June 27, 2008 A new round of storms dumped a half foot (15 cm) or more of rain across parts of the US Midwest on Wednesday, dealing fresh trouble to a region already struggling with billions of dollars in flood damage. The bad news came as a key farm group estimated US crop damage this year had hit US$8 billion nationwide, most of it in the key Midwest growing areas of the world's biggest grain and food exporter amid the worst flooding in 15 years. The new storms that soaked Missouri on Wednesday closed roads and sent smaller streams out of their banks, pushing more water into the basin that feeds both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, just as the Mississippi was cresting or about to in areas upstream from St. Louis. For full article, go to: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49045/story.htm

The Floods: A Man-Made Disaster?

By Michael Grunwald – Time Magazine – June 25, 2008 On March 4, three Midwestern University professors wrote to warn the Army Corps of Engineers that its concrete navigation structures in the Mississippi River were intensifying floods, and that its plans to build more wingdikes and weirs would "exacerbate a severe and growing problem." They called some of the structures — designed to scour out the river's bottom so that barges could pass — "loaded cannons pointing at St. Louis and East St. Louis, waiting to go off in the next flood." Citing "clear and unequivocal data" from a dozen peer-reviewed articles, they declared that "the time to ask these questions is now, and not in the aftermath of the next great flood." For full story, go to: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1818040,00.html

County Purchases Wetlands to Stem Floods

By Chris Coates – Collinsville Herald – June 25, 2008 The county is buying 70 acres near Interstate 255 in Pontoon Beach to help control flooding in the region. The purchase was made through a series of grants. "It's another link in the chain. It's all about storm water," said Frank O. Miles, head of the Madison County planning and development department, which handles flood plain issues. For full story, go to: http://collinsvilleherald.stltoday.com/articles/2008/06/26/news/sj2tn20080625-0625gcj-wetlands.ii1.txt

Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment Comprehensive Watershed Management Planning Purpose of the Hearing

The Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment met on Tuesday, June 24, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. in 2167 RHOB, to receive testimony on Comprehensive Watershed Management and Planning efforts. Testimony was heard from Steve Stockton, Army Corps of Engineers; Gerald Galloway, University of Maryland; Larry Larson, Association of State Floodplain Managers; William Mullican, Texas Water Development Board; Carol Collier, Delaware River Basin Commission; Brian Richter, The Nature Conservancy; Paul Freedman, Water Environment Federation. The link to the hearing is: http://transportation.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetail.aspx?NewsID=671 Testimony given by Larry Larson can be found at: http://transportation.house.gov/Media/File/water/20080624/Larson%20Testimony.pdf

A human link to Midwest floods? By Eoin O'Carroll – Christian Science Monitor – June 23, 2008 Some experts are saying that irresponsible land use, and possibly human-induced climate change, are to blame for the severity of floods that have devastated the Upper Midwest this month. Over the past century, farmers have drained wetlands, whose grasses have deep roots that help absorb water, and replaced them with profitable fields of corn and soybeans, plants with shallow root systems. Farms have also installed underground drainage systems, accelerating the amount of water that runs off into streams and rivers. For full story, go to: http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/06/23/a-human-link-to-midwest-floods/

Altered Terrain Almost Beckons Disaster

By Dennis Anderson – Star Tribune – June 19, 2008 People and their motivations -- or lack thereof -- provide an endless source of conundrums. Among them: Why do they repeat behaviors known to do them harm, financially and otherwise? Case in point: the Iowa floods, with damages that will total in the billions of dollars -- were all predictable, if not preventable. Like Minnesota, Iowa has been almost completely transformed since settlement. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, 95 percent of that state's wetlands have been drained or filled. About 75 percent of its forests have been cleared and more than 99 percent of its prairies have fallen to the plow. For full opinion, go to: http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/20584544.html?location_refer= Motorsports

Iowa Flooding Could Be an Act of Man, Experts Say

By Joel Achenbach – Washington Post – June 19, 2008 As the Cedar River rose higher and higher, and as he stacked sandbags along the levee protecting downtown Cedar Falls, Kamyar Enshayan, a college professor and City Council member, kept asking himself the same question: "What is going on?" The river would eventually rise six feet higher than any flood on record. Farther downstream, in Cedar Rapids, the river would break the record by more than 11 feet. For the full article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/ 2008/06/18/AR2008061803371html?wpisrc=newsletter

Death Looms for a Flood-Control Project (Yazoo Pumps)

By Felicity Barringer – The New York Times – April 9, 2008 Seven decades of hydro-engineering have transformed the lower Mississippi Delta from wetlands to dry fields of cotton and soybeans. Levees and canals funnel runoff from hundreds of thousands of acres here to a huge set of metal gates that sit across Steele Bayou. For full story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/us/09yazoo.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref= slogin&oref=slogin

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Publications

Wetlands and Natural Hazards by Jon Kusler, Ph.D., Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (DRAFT - 08/13/07)

Professional Liability for Construction in Flood Hazard Areas by Jon Kusler, Esq., Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. (05/14/07) Prepared for the Association of State Floodplain Managers Foundation

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Meetings

NYSFSMA Offers August CFM Training

An all-day Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) training course, The National Flood Insurance Program: An Overview, will be held on Wednesday, August 27, 2008, from 9:30am to 5:00pm, in Buffalo, NY, with the National Certified Floodplain Manager Exam to be held on Thursday August 28 at 9:30am. For information visit: http://ny.floods.org/ or for a flyer in pdf see: http://ny.floods.org/Docs/CFM%20Flyer%20NYS.pdf

Floodplain Management Association Conference

Floodplain Sustainability: Integrating Flood Risk, Land Use and Environmental Stewardship will be held on September 2-5, 2008 at the Paradise Point Resort, San Diego, California. Don't miss this year's premier conference in Floodplain Management in the U.S.! With over 400 attendees from around the country and the international community, the conference brings together regulators, scientists, planners, engineers and researchers to address the latest policy and technical issues in floodplain management. This year's program will focus on integrating key elements of floodplain sustainability: flood risk, land use and environmental stewardship. Program and Call for Presentations is available at http://www.floodplain.org/conference.php

National Floodproofing Conference IV

The Association of State Floodplain Managers will hold its 4th National Floodproofing Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 17-20, 2008. For more information visit: http://www.floods.org/Conferences,%20Calendar/nfpc4.asp

ASFPM 33rd Annual National Conference

The Association of State Floodplains Managers will hold its 33rd Annual National Conferece: Green Works to Reduce Flood Losses on June 7-12, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. For information, visit: http://www.floods.org/Conferences,%20Calendar/Orlando.asp#reg

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Links of Interest

Association of State Floodplain Managers http://www.floods.org

FEMA http://www.fema.gov/

Watershed Concepts - Floodplains Analysis http://www.watershedconcepts.com/services/FloodplainAnalysis.html

FEMA Map Center http://msc.fema.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/FemaWelcomeView?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1

California Awareness Floodplains http://www.fpm.water.ca.gov/mapping/awareness_mapping.cfm

North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program http://www.ncfloodmaps.com/default_swf.asp

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