Community Corner

Iowa City Mayor on Flood: 'We're Not Out of This Yet' But Encouraging Signs

With each day, the river rises but the concern wanes.

"We're not out of the woods," Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek said standing in front of the swollen Iowa River on Monday. "We don't know what is going to happen weather-wise. It's sunny right now but what really matters is the weather upstream."

Hayek said the city is watching the weather closely and isn't taking anything for granted.

Still, he said, there's some encouraging signs. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports the Coralville Reservoir is projected to crest Thursday at 710 feet above sea level, which is below the spillway height of 712 feet.

While some low-lying areas, such as the Normandy Drive area, are flooded, the expectation of more widespread damage is decreasing with each day. Perhaps a reaction to the extensive damage of the 2008 flood, miles of floodwalls made out of sandbags, HESCO barriers, and other materials for retaining water have been erected around property in many areas of town. 

"We're not out of this yet, however, the last day or two have provided some encouraging indications in terms of river levels, Hayek said.

Hayek and other local officials from city, state and county government, as well as University of Iowa officials, welcomed Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds to the area to examine flooding conditions. 

Branstad praised local government for coming together and coordinating with University of Iowa, state and federal officials. He said he and other local and state officials "fought hard" to get federal funding for disaster relief after 2008.

Some federal dollars are to go to replacing destroyed buildings, such as Hancher Auditorium, while others are to lessen the impact of flooding in the future, such as elevating the flood-prone Dubuque Street. 

"Obviously there's a cost of preparing for and avoiding the problem but that's a lot less then having a hundreds of millions of dollars in buildings destroyed," Branstad said.  


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