flooding – Memphis Flyer

Mayor Rick Eberlin of Grafton, Illinois, pilots a boat full of media during a press tour of flooded areas of his city last year.

Mayors along the Mississippi River are fighting a two-front battle: containing the coronavirus contagion inside and the coming spring flood season outside.

Dozens of mayors from cities from up and down the Mississippi River gathered Thursday morning in a call with federal agencies to coordinate responses to both the coronavirus pandemic and the spring flood season.

The Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI) issued a report this month that said flooding cost 11 Mississippi-adjacent states $6.2 billion last year. This week, a large storm is passing through the region. Government officials are responding to that storm as they also juggle their coronavirus plans.

Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative

Clarksville, Missouri, used temporary flood structures to save their downtown as the Mississippi River moved up Main Street last year.

“Our mayors have been in close communication and coordination with [Federal Emergency Management Agency], the Corps of Engineers, [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], and the [United States Geological Survey],” said Bob Gallagher, mayor of Bettendorf, Iowa. “The good news is all our federal partners are ready to deliver as much mission critical response as we would typically rely on even during this pandemic.”

Some of the response includes keeping first responders, volunteers, and residents safe. Much of this includes extra steps to ensure they’re safe from contagion in response to disasters.

”We are working closely with our state emergency management agencies, public health departments, FEMA, the Corps of Engineers, and the Red Cross to make sure our first responder teams have the personal protective gear they need and we can limit exposure to residents we interact with that may need assistance,” said Rick Eberlin, mayor of Grafton, Illinois. “Also, our smaller towns depend on volunteers for disaster response and thus we are developing protocols to limit contagion.”

Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative

Mayor Rick Eberlin of Grafton, Illinois pilots a boat full of media during a press tour of flooded areas of his city last year.

Floods cost 11 Mississippi-River states $6.2 billion last year, according to a group of mayors representing cities and towns along the river.

The Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI) released the finding and more in meetings with federal officials this week in Washington, D.C. There, they are, once again, pushing infrastructure proposals to improve resiliency along the Mississippi River from the “acute shocks and chronic stresses” the region has sustained.

Flooding along the river was worst last year in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas, MRCTI said, with each state incurring flood-related costs of $1 billion-$2 billion.

Last year, Grafton, Illinois lost 80 percent of its economy because of flooding. Vidalia, Louisiana saw 270 consecutive days of flooding, a new national record, MRCTI said.
[pullquote-1] “There is definitely an upward trend we can chart over the last few years,” said Bob Gallagher, mayor of Bettendorf, Iowa.“The spatial scale and duration of the 2019 Central U.S. flooding set many records. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it’s plausible to expect this trend to be more frequent with damaging riverine and urban floods to continue.”

The flooding trend is expect to continue this year. While the National Weather Service said last week the 2020 spring flood season is expected to be less severe than last year’s, flooding is expected, particularly in the upper and mid-Mississippi Valley.

“This all begs the question of what we’re doing to address these issues and mitigate our seemingly mounting risk,” said Sharon Weston Broome, mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.“Meeting these challenges is part of the reason for the MRCTI visit to Washington, DC.”

Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative

Clarksville, Missouri used temporary flood structures to save their downtown as the Mississippi River moved up Main Street last year.

MRCTI officials met with key officials and pushed proposals that would cost $6.85 billion but would mitigate “mounting climate risk,” create more than 128,000 jobs, and generate more than $20.5 billion in economy activity. The money would be spent on improvements to the built and natural environments to protect cities along the river.

Memphis will soon embark upon such an improvement project at the Mid-South Fairgrounds and in the Belt Line neighborhood. But these improvements are thanks not to feds but to private funds and foundations.

Memphis and New Orleans each won money for projects through the very first Environmental Impact Bond Challenge from capital firm Quantified Ventures, the McKnight Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.

“Memphis will focus its Environmental Impact Bond on financing a suite of green infrastructure projects concentrated in the Fairgrounds and Beltline neighborhoods to reduce local flooding, improve water quality, provide community green space, and revitalize underutilized areas,” according to a MRCTI news release.