Mitigation Best Practices

CHEHALIS, WA - Karen McGhee and her husband Terry have rented multiple homes in the City of Chehalis, Washington over the years. In 1990, they sat in their hilltop house and watched as floodwaters rose throughout the town below them.

ARNOLD, MO - The City of Arnold (pop. 20,082) is a thriving, prosperous community located just 20 miles south of St. Louis where the Meramec River joins the Mississippi. The Meramec, flowing south, forms the eastern border of the city. But in the late spring/summer of 1993, great floods struck hard across the Midwest, inundating northeastern portions of Arnold and damaging more than 225 properties. While the potential for flooding is always a fact of life in Arnold, the 1993 flood was the most significant and devastating flood in the city’s history.

SAN LEON, TX  - Before starting construction of their waterfront home in San Leon, Texas, George and Diana Click spent time researching safe building practices. They obtained information on choosing a builder, current building codes, coastal construction mitigation techniques, and adequate insurance coverage.

MISSISSIPPI - Repetitive loss sites have been prevalent in several flood prone counties across the State. In an effort to prevent or minimize future losses, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency decided to develop a customized Geographic Information System (GIS) application that would allow them to query and map the repetitive loss sites.

CAÑON CITY, CO – Cañon City officials completed an acquisition project after being motivated by a home that was subject to frequent flooding. The 2011 acquisition was funded by FEMA’s repetitive flood claims program.

Property acquisition can be a cost-effective and long-term solution for community floodplain managers and owners of flood-prone properties. The house that previously stood on the now empty lot was subjected to flooding not long after it was built. For decades, flooding of the Cañon City home continued after almost every rain storm.

CATAHOULA PARISH, LA – Catahoula Parish has had a tumultuous relationship with the Ouachita and Black Rivers as these rivers are prone to high-velocity flooding. Soil erosion occurs naturally, but certain factors such as water and wind can accelerate, and worsen, its effects. In the parish, floodwaters from the rivers damaged nearby roadways, prompting parish officials to seek mitigation measures to break the cycle of destruction and repair.

OCEAN COUNTY, NJ – Fred Harvey and his wife, Cecilia, were on vacation when Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy struck New Jersey causing severe damage along the coast. While viewing a news story of the storm, they realized they were viewing the damage to their neighborhood in Holgate, New Jersey. Although not seeing their own home, they realized that most, if not all, of the residences in their neighborhood were damaged to some extent.

HIRAM, ME - One of Maine’s most pristine rivers, the Saco River, runs through the bucolic region of southwestern Maine. Bisected by the Saco River is the small Maine village of Hiram. Here, alongside the Saco runs River Road and its long history of flooding.

MORRISVILLE, PA - Protecting the safety and property of its residents is the first priority of any emergency manager. Bob Seward, Morrisville Borough EMC, knows this as well as anyone. He has been battling floods in the community for years. In April 2005, more than 25 homes and a large city park were flooded when a spillway channeling the Delaware Canal into the Delaware River overtopped.

Learning from this experience, in coordination with Borough Manager George Mount, Morrisville decided to try a new approach to prevent flooding.

GARLAND, NC - The Williams' home had experienced two episodes of flooding due to hurricanes. In 1984 flood waters entered the house soaking duct work, all flooring and carpets as well as damaging utilities and appliances. The family was displaced from their home for two months. When Hurricane Fran soaked eastern North Carolina in 1996, the Williams' house again had flood damage and the family was again displaced for about two months.