FERP

FERP: What is it? Is it good? Did it work?

What is it?

The Flood Emergency Response Plan (FERP) is the University of Iowa’s first flood plan. It was put in place in 2007 because officials feared another 100 year flood (like the one in 1993). Hurricane Katrina served as a reminder of what strong water could do to an area so the plan made logical sense. The university felt that it needed to make sure that its students and interests were protected. They wanted to keep the cost of future floods down as much as possible.

Is it good?

The plan is a step in the right direction, but it only took 100 year floods into account. What if the flood was stronger? This made officials very important because they would have to adapt with what was happening. If a 500 year flood hit the variables would change drastically making fast response important.

Did it work?

It worked to an extent. The officials organizing the flood efforts knew what they were doing, but once June 12, 2008 hit everything that they planned had to be thrown away because the flooding exceeded all prepared plans. The sandbagging that had been done was not enough so lessening the damage of the water was the only thing that could be done. Volunteers were used to preserve things like books and art. The University knew that damages would be high.

Personal view:

FERP is a step in the right directions, but officials need to understand that floods are hard to predict. The corps changed the projected peak of the 2008 flood many times. This means that preparations need to vary greatly because we never know many resources we will need.

University of Iowa 2008

High Waters!

    
          Uploaded by uimediaproduction on Jun 20, 2008

Footage of the June 2008 flooding and aftermath on the University of Iowa campus and surrounding are

This gives you an idea of what the officials and students at the University of Iowa had to deal with. Some of the building discussed in Chapter 4 are shown in this video.

Chapter 4 Review

Book Review: A Watershed Year Anatomy of the Iowa Floods of 2008 Edited by Cornelia F. Mutel

4. The University of Iowa and the Flood by Barbara Eckstein and Rodney Lehnertz

Both the University of Iowa and Iowa City were founded in 1840. They share the main street which now is home to the universities, east side of the river, main Power Plant, Water Plant, Main Library, the English- Philosophy Building, Iowa Memorial Union, and the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories. On the west side of the river there is the C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory, the Art Building and Art Building West, the Museum of Art, the Theatre Building, Voxman Music Building, Clapp Recital Hall, and Hancher Auditorium. All of these buildings are in the flood plain, meaning that they are all flood risks. Most of the buildings were built after the Coralville dam, which is found 8 river miles upstream from downtown Iowa City.

During the 1993 flood the university suffered 6 million dollars of damage (Cook 2008). After the flood the university decided that it needed a new way to deal with the floods so it formed the Flood EmergencyResponse Plan (FERP). University officials, after the winter and wet spring, believed that they would have to put the plan into use in 2008.

The University of Iowa Flood Response:

June 3, 2008

University of Iowa staff starts to sandbag Mayflower Residence Hall because of rising water

June 4, 2008

Students, those that stayed for summer, in the Mayflower Residence Hall are evacuated. People are told to avoid Dubuque Street.

June 5, 2008

Sandbagging on the west and east side of the river increases because of heavy rainfalls upstream. Officials believed that the increased release rate at Coralville Reservoir would cause water to overflow the dam’s emergency spillways. This would create substantial flooding in the area.

June 6, 2008

There was a call for more volunteers to help with the sandbagging. Officials increased organized efforts to protect the campus.

June 7, 2008

The Arts Campus was told it would have to relocate because of the flood.

June 9, 2008

The classes at the Art Campus were suspended, and other University Offices were relocated because of the danger on the river. Museum of Art began to implement its disaster prevention plan.

June 10, 2008

The emergency spillways at the Coralville Reservoir are topped by water.

June 11, 2008

Art Campus starts to become flooded. Other buildings are in danger of becoming flooded, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The National Guard arrives on the plea of the university president.

June 12, 2008

The flood waters go over the amounts seen in 1993. Iowa Memorial Union and University Book Store are evacuated. Parents and students are evacuated after freshmen orientation. Strong rains that day make it clear that flooding would only increase.

June 13, 2008

Volunteers move 10,000 books from the Main Library to higher levels. Summer classes and summer events are canceled because of high flood waters.

June 14, 2008

Power Plant was lost. There was 21 feet of standing water in the planet. Sandbagging continued, and even intensified on the east side of the river. Nurses were brought in from the Quad Cities to help with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

June 15, 2008

Four more building flooded. However, the water started to recede. In total 22 major buildings were flooded. More than 500 tons of sandbags were taken to areas that still needed them.

Summer Classes resumed June 23, 2008

In Iowa City the flood of 2008 was a lot more destructive and expensive than the one in 1993. In total the 2008 flood did 283 million dollars of damage to the University. This amount was 40 times more than what the 1993 damage cost.  

Cook, Diana. 2008. Former Director of Risk Management,
   University of Iowa. E-mail communications to Rodney
   Lehnertz, December 2008.

How did it look?

Uploaded by John Stanec on Jun 14, 2008

Images of the Coralville Reservoir and Iowa City.

Video of flood by Coralville Reservoir 

What do you think of the footage?

Chapter 3 Review

Book Review: A Watershed Year Anatomy of the Iowa Floods of 2008 Edited by Cornelia F. Mutel

 3. Iowa City and the Flood by Richard A. Fosse

                
Times of flooding make the community come together. Many communities work together on similar goals. These goals are conceived to help the whole survive, especially once human needs become a target. One of the main factors in flood safety is advanced planning. Advanced planning can be seen as the government’s job because it’s their job to provide a number of safeties to the people: protect the safety of residents, safeguard critical infrastructure, share information with the public, and where possible, provide resources to assist residents in their preparations for the flood.

 Iowa City, Coralville, the University of Iowa, and Johnson County are bound communities. They are bound together by an interdependence created by the risk of similar threat and limited resources.

I’m going to outline the events that transpired in Iowa City in 2008. Similar event happened in the other areas mentioned. This will give a good idea of what happens during a large flood.

June 3, 2008

-Call from U.S. Army Core of Engineers say that the weather conditions are right for there to be a flood. This news was not very surprising.

June 4, 2008

-Flood preparation starts

                -Flood size was unclear at this point

-At this point communication is highly important

                -Iowa City is located just downstream from a dam that regulates the release of water, so response time is increased in the area

                -Making sure that the residents have updated information of floods progression

June 5, 2008

-Sandbagging and knowledge

                -making sure that residential and business areas were being sandbagged

                -making sure that the sandbagging was being done correctly because improper sandbagging is a huge waste of resources

                -updating people online on events, and giving links to correct sandbagging techniques

-Created an Emergency Command Post/ Emergency Operations Center to manage all flood related efforts

                -meant to keep efforts organized and informed

                -Organizations like the National Guard, Iowa Department of Transportation, Red Cross, and Salvation Army were deployed through these centers

                - The modeled used to structure these centers was developed by the Department of Homeland Security and is called the National Incident Management System (NIMS). This system was developed after 9/11 to address how the relief for a large single disaster should be organized.

June 6, 2008

-The Corps predicted that the water would go over the emergency spillways.

                -this meant that the flood would be large

                -the need to inform the public increased drastically

June 9, 2008

-The Corps predicted a peak discharge of 28,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) ¹ on June 17

                -this was close to the peak of the flood of 1993

June 10, 2008

-Corps increased the prediction to 32,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) ¹ on June 16

                -this was substantially higher than the peak in 1993

-This made planning much harder because planners couldn’t rely on history anymore

                -new plans had to be made so that infrastructure wasn’t destroyed

                -people had to be informed of the dangers of higher water levels

June 11, 2008

-Prediction was raised to 33,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) ¹

                        -fear of other storm systems after flooding

                -how would the area handle additional rain if another storm system hit right after

June 12, 2008

-The most intense period of rainfall

-Iowa River was rising faster than expected

                -evacuations of certain communities, Parkview Terrace

                -sandbagging was effective but not for the amounts being predicted in some areas

                -Once Parkview Terrace flooded the one road connecting the community was cut-off making evacuation difficult

-Peak prediction changed to 40,000 cfs on June 17

                -this was a huge concern because it put critical infrastructure in jeopardy

                                -drinking water

                -resource had to be placed in areas where protection was feasible

                                -places where nothing could be done were shut off so that damage could be limited

June 13, 2008

-All communities were focused on the floods

-Calls to the centers increased substantially (from 250 calls a day to 3,043 calls a day)

-Flood peak prediction was raised (AGAIN!) to 44,000 cfs

June 14, 2008

-Huge volunteer turnout at Iowa City neighborhoods, Coralville, and the University of Iowa

                -sandbagging effort to help secure the city

                -day was filled with much rain and ended with a tornado warning

June 15, 2008

-Flood peaked at 6:30 am at 41,100 cfs

                -this was slightly less than the 500 year flood

-This day was a turning point. It was the first measured flood peak of the 2008 flood. In 1993 there were a total of 10 peaks in 35 days.