The Mississippi river at Davenport Iowa has flooded the city to some extent for 400 years some years , a little bit and other years a lot ! of bit.

For two hundred years people have chosen to build in the flood plain.

This year we are breaking/setting all kinds of flooding records.

Silly Iowans inability to learn from the past may be
trending them in too extinction.

but every year two or three different committee's or boards spend tens of thousands of dollars to attract people to enhance the river front by building and improving downtown business in too the flood plain.



here is a thought,

build four miles of four story parking ramps and put all the "river front" business's
on top of them ,
that way

when the floods come the store's /bar's do not have to evacuate
or just make the parks or green spaces
that do not require massive reparations ,post flood.

more here:
https://www.google.com/search?....gws-wiz.zf_rS2NrmfI

Iowa keeps experiencing what the news call the 500 year flood, then it's the 100 year flood, then they talk about 50 year flood plains. A bit later that stop talking about years and it's just more climate change.

At the same time, developers offer to build homes in flood plains known to be covered occasionally with water. Cities quickly approve them since more property tax money overrides any thought of citizen or home safety.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bryan11,

Not limited to Iowa. The entire east coast suffers from this mindset. Here in PA with many rivers and streams the mindset is prevalent. I get it, we all want a home by the water. However, when Mother Nature takes her inevitable course, YOYO. I don't want to pay for your arrogance.

There are cases where development causes problems downstream. We have that in SW PA. I am OK with helping people who suffer flooding as a result of this. However, if you continue to rebuild in the same location, once again YOYO.

Just leave the old part. Build a new city on top of it. Then the old part can be revitalized 100 years later and be called Underground Davenport. They can sell Underground Davenport trinkets all day long.

And these areas will receive federal money to rebuild/repair...again. The next time it happens? They'll get it...again.

If I were king for a day, they'd get it once. Next time they're on their own. If they can't seem to find two brain cells to rub together and realize that it would be best to build their houses/business where they'll stay dry in the event of flooding, I shouldn't be forced to subsidize that stupidity.

After Hurricane Ike, FEMA reclassified many homes that had multiple flood claims as uninsurable and gave the owners the choice of buyout or uninsurable rebuild. One of my coworkers took the buyout option.

Galveston Island is another example of a smart FEMA program. Houses must be built on stilts and ground level enclosed stairways, garages, etc. must be knockout walls. Only the portion of the house on stilts in insurable and the ground level is at homeowner's risk. My buddy and his wife built a cottage there in '09 and their garage and bar is ground level so it's uninsurable with knockout walls. The 2nd level is noticeably higher than the neighbors with 1960s homes as they update the stilts/piling height standard every decade or so.

Both of the above should be done after every flood large enough to get FEMA disaster assistance.

can the insurance companies be making billions of money here?

instead of charging $1,900.00 every six months to have a building in the flood plain,

are they charging $22,000.00 every six months and just waiting?

Anyone fancy a game of baseball?

quote:

Originally posted by bobtheelf:
Anyone fancy a game of baseball?

By boat....

Quite a few years ago I was talking to a guy who had moved out west from somewhere in the mid-west, Kansas maybe. He was a diver and did a lot of search & rescue work. He said he left because he got tired of pulling bodies out of cars in parking garages after flash floods.

and AND!
if river water is not enough to keep you from residing in a flood plain,
maybe 500,000 gallons of raw sewage in the water
would change your mind.

That's just from the quad cities.

not including the 9 cities up stream

50 days , at above flood stage,
now we are at minor flood stage,
what ever that is

“Is this heaven?”

Uhh, no, it’s Iowa

One might add, “far from it,” but that would be wrong.

Many communities along the Mississippi have been flooded, Davenport may be the largest and it's right next to my city of Bettendorf.

After the major flooding of 1965, three of the four IA/IL Quad Cities accepted 90% federal funding to build flood walls. Moline & Rock Island in IL, Bettendorf in IA. Davenport declined, preferring to maintain a view of the river. The Mississippi has flooded numerous times since we moved here in 1993, 2019 was by far the worst, but Davenport could have avoided it each time.

This article does a great job explaining Davenport's history with the river. I assure you, it's rare when I use "great job" and "Washington Post" in the same sentence.

The link has several photos of downtown Davenport flooding.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.d145b7299196

Amid bigger and more frequent floods, a city in Iowa debates how to ‘make peace’ with the Mississippi

By Frances Stead Sellers and
Annie Gowen May 3

DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Half Nelson restaurant was well stocked and spiffy for its official opening Tuesday, an upscale addition to the locally owned businesses that anchor this riverfront city.

But then a temporary flood barrier breached, shooting torrents of water from the Mississippi River through the restaurant’s kitchen toward the custom-built tile and walnut bar. By the time the river crested here on Thursday, co-owner Matthew Osborn barely had time to nap while overseeing pipes, pumps and generators and ferrying in supplies by boat.

“I went to get a tetanus shot and fell asleep in the chair,” said Osborn, perched on an elevated bench next to two pairs of chest waders that were hanging ­upside-down to drain.

For years, Davenport was the only major city on the Upper Mississippi to resist permanent flood protection, opting instead for an environmentally sound approach of “embracing” the natural flow of the river with parks, wetlands and flood-friendly buildings.

That strategy had been strikingly successful until this week, when the city’s system of removable barricades failed to withstand the river’s record-breaking rise, fueled by prolonged rain, snow melt and saturated ground.

The river crested on Thursday at a record 22.64 feet, beating the previous record set in 1993, according to the National Weather Service. Water inundated several downtown blocks, and about 30 residents had to be rescued by boat.

City leaders fear the threat has not passed, as the forecast calls for more rain on Sunday and Monday.

But it’s the long-term threat — from bigger and more frequent floods, spurred by extreme weather and riverfront development — that is making some residents lose faith in the temporary barricades.

“I used to be neutral,” said Mike Osborn, Matthew’s father, who owns two other restaurants in the area and describes the Half Nelson as a $1.4 million investment. “Now I’m in favor of a flood wall.”

Rick Harris, owner of the neighboring Bootleg Hill taproom, was more outspoken as his sons and employees swept water through holes drilled in the new floor.

“It’s a fool’s errand,” he said of the temporary barriers. “The city doesn’t take responsibility.”

All agree that the challenges ahead are immense and universal. Davenport’s conundrum is America’s — not only along mighty waterways but also on suburban creeks that burst in sudden fury through new developments.

Iowa’s latest flood comes as towns on the other side of the state are still recovering from levee breaches along the Missouri River, which plunged large swaths of the Midwest underwater in March, causing more than $1.6 billion in damage in Iowa. On April 11, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) declared a state of emergency in Scott County, where Davenport is located — one of 61 Iowa counties suffering from soaked ground and epic floods.

Less than a month later, she toured the flooded downtown of this eastern Iowa city of 103,000 in a golf cart with Mayor Frank Klipsch on Friday. They got out to wade into the street near the Half Nelson to take a closer look at flooded cars and chat briefly with business owners.

“I can’t control the weather, ” Reynolds said. “But we are going to come back stronger than ever, and we are open for business.”

She later tweeted that she and Davenport officials “are committed to a recovery plan that works for both the short and long term.”

Yet, he said the city remains committed to the path Davenport set itself on decades ago, when it spurned a plan to build levees and decided to “make peace” with its river, creating a scenic nine-mile riverfront in the process.

“We have a beautiful riverfront and want it to keep it that way,” the mayor said Thursday. “If we put up a flood wall it will push the water into Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri and make their problems worse.”

Davenport’s idiosyncratic approach to flood control dates back more than half a century, when city leaders investigated the possibility of building a permanent flood wall following a flooding disaster in 1965.

Residents resisted the idea, and there was little appetite among the city council’s fiscal conservatives for such an expensive infrastructure project, said Teri Goodman, assistant city manager of the upriver town of Dubuque, whose father helped develop the plan.

Instead, the town built flood-friendly buildings and created parks and marshes in low-lying areas so seasonal floodwater would have a place to go. They set up removable aluminum flood walls around its historic ballpark to keep it dry.

Mike Clarke, a former Davenport public works director who is now an official in St. Pete Beach, Fla., said that the city’s custody of its waterfront has been “visionary.”

“The idea is you have to work with nature and leave nature to do its thing, and not stand in her way,” Clarke said. “Davenport’s done a fantastic job of doing that. Don’t get in an argument with nature. In an argument with man and nature, nature wins 100 percent of the time.”

But he faulted the city for not doing enough to prepare for this particular flood. The river was held back by only one row of temporary barriers, but Clarke said he thinks the city should have stacked them at least two deep.

“They didn’t position themselves for the flood-fighting protection to the level that was necessary,” he said.

Kathy Wine, executive director of the nonprofit environmental organization River Action, sees long-term regional benefits to keeping the city connected with the Mississippi, while protecting key infrastructure such as the water treatment plant.

Wine, who had just finished finding a dry space for the contents of her flooded office, remains firm in the resolve she made public in the mid-1980s when she set up a giant plywood barrier in a riverfront park to show citizens what they would lose if they built a wall.

Since then, Wine said, she has found an ally in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and encouraged the city in innovative projects such as the Figge Art Museum, which has an elevated first floor allowing water to flow through below, and in buying out houses in flood plains.

She speaks with greatest pride about transforming a brownfield into a 310-acre wetland, all of which is now deeply underwater.

“It’s doing its job. I shudder to think where we’d be without it,” she said.

But she also knows the floods will reopen the debate about Davenport’s strategy.

“Are we going to be able to keep a majority agreeing this is the way to go?” Wine asked.

Tim Baldwin, co-owner of the Front Street Brewery, is in no hurry to build a permanent wall. He saw the dramatic gush of water cross the HESCO barrier on Tuesday, and he thinks the brewery is a total loss.

Instead of joining the calls for a wall, he may commemorate the 2019 flood with a new beer, perhaps named “Barrier Breach.”

It will add to the many ways this city defines itself by its connection to the river.

At the Current hotel’s rooftop bar on Thursday, people tried to pick out familiar landmarks in the maelstrom below: One man pointed out a hot-dog stand where the heights of previous floods had been carefully marked. Now, only its square roof is visible above the churning waters.

Definitely messy this year.

Growing up, and watching the QC Angels play there, it was always fun to see a guy homer and try to reach the river. Today, it wouldn't take much of a swing to reach the river.

Centennial bridge sure looks a lot closer to the water than I've ever seen it look before. Speaks to the level.

two news stories from last night.

A. A committee will be formed in the city of davenport to see what can be done about the Mississippi river.

B.
several local business men that chose to move in to the flood prone area in downtown Davenport want to start suing the city of davenport because the river flooded their establishments
( for the 63 time in 58 years)

the stupid is strong in eastern Iowa

quote:

. A committee will be formed in the city of davenport to see what can be done about the Mississippi river.

B.
several local business men that chose to move in to the flood prone area in downtown Davenport want to start suing the city of davenport because the river flooded their establishments
( for the 63 time in 58 years)

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Slight thread drift. All that damn Mississippi river water is being diverted into Lake Pontchatrain and then into the Mississippi Sound where is killing dolphins, the entire oyster crop etc. The opening of the Bonne Care Spillway saves New Orleans from a flood but has devastated our economy. The worst thing we here on the Gulf Coast have little control over it. The effects are the same as the Deep Horizon oil disaster. Here is the story:

D’IBERVILLE, Miss. (WLOX) - Concern is continuing to grow over the historic second opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Louisiana. This second opening is now into its 20th day.

The move was done to prevent the Mississippi River from flooding New Orleans. Now, trillions of gallons of fresh river water is pouring into the Mississippi Sound. That was the topic of a town hall meeting in D’Iberville Thursday evening.

Emotions ran high at the standing room only meeting. Than Nguyen is an oysterman.

“Who’s going to take care of us?" Nguyen asked. "New Orleans is living and we’re over here, like, dying.”

With the opening of the spillway, every marine animal is in danger. That’s the word from oysterman Keith Hudson.

“All our oysters that we just did a relay on back in December, 18,000 sacks, there’s nothing," Hudson said. "There’s no live bait, the fishing industry’s down, you can’t catch crabs. It’s very devastating. Everybody’s upset.”

With dead dolphins washing up every day, potential tourists could look the other way. Linda Hornsby is Director of the Hotel-Motel Association.

“When you have an image of these dolphins, or other sea life, turtles, and that’s shared by social media, it’s hard to get that image out of people’s minds,” Hornsby said.

Businesses that supply the seafood industry are also feeling the pain. Dann Balius owns one.

“It’s getting pretty bad. We’ve not sold any dredges. We build oyster dredges and even in Louisiana it’s pretty much got it shut down where we’re at a standstill,” Balius said.

Even oyster aquaculture reefs off Deer Island have been decimated, according to Nguyen.

“I went out there this morning, grabbed it, brought it in-land and counted it - 85% is dead. And I’m not going to sell the other 15% because it’s a safety issue. So I threw everything back in the ocean,” Nguyen said.

Louisiana received a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act prior to the opening, according to an engineer from New Orleans, Dennis Lambert.

“A lot of people in Louisiana talk about the waiver for the diversions as legislative relief, but these animals don’t understand that and they are suffering,” Lambert said.

For now, there’s lots of fear and concern, but few answers about improving the situation. Those in Thursday night’s crowd are hoping those answers come soon.

Here’s the toll as of Thursday night: 108 dolphins have washed up dead, as well as 141 sea turtles.

Meanwhile, as we first told you about on Tuesday, coast mayors are trying to set up a meeting with the Army Corp of Engineers in Louisiana to discuss the impact of the spillway opening on coastal Mississippi. That agency controls the spillway.
.

LINK: https://www.wlox.com/2019/05/3...y-town-hall-meeting/

quote:

Slight thread drift. All that damn Mississippi river water is being diverted into Lake Pontchatrain and then into the Mississippi Sound where is killing dolphins, the entire oyster crop etc.

Until the farmers start using water ways in their fields ,
or the government starts making them install water ways.
the ocean will keep dying.

no water ways = no support money , i.m.o.

the upper midwest farmers and industry are killing the oceans,
there is no doubt about it



sediment and ! the farm chemicals can be controlled

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Thanks bendable. I am glad that somebody up there understands. The wildlife biologist said the salinity is zero in the Sound and that even 10 miles out there is an abundance of fresh water. Tourists don't like seeing dead dolphins on the beach.