Mitigation Best Practices

MOORE HAVEN, FL – When Hurricane Wilma crossed Glades County on Oct. 24, 2005, tropical winds met with cold air masses and intensified the storm. The unusual weather phenomenon caused Wilma to batter the county with winds in excess of 100 mph for a continuous 42 minutes—without the normal calm that occurs when the eye passes. With the damage incurred during previous hurricanes, officials wondered how the facilities would look when they surveyed the grounds.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TX – Richard Ehrlich, a South Padre Island building inspector and builder, knew all too well what Hurricane Dolly could do to the three housing units he had built on this trendy barrier island. He says Dolly was “like blasting your house with a car wash sprayer, for hours and hours.”

LOUISVILLE, KY - With the largest population in the state of Kentucky, the City of Louisville is the economic engine for Jefferson County. Located along the Ohio River, the city has a long history of flooding. After severe flooding in 1997, the Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) initiated partnerships among private businesses, residents, and local, state, and federal governments to develop a business plan for identifying mapping needs and priorities with the goal of flood prevention.

LONOKE COUNTY, AR – Residents in several subdivisions located in the City of Cabot kept a watchful eye on their property during heavy rainfall. All too often water would find its way out of ditches and other low-lying areas and would creep into yards and homes in the area. To reduce the flood risk, the City of Cabot, located in Lonoke County, implemented a series of flood-control projects which were partly funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP).

HOLYWOOD, FL - In a state rocked by one powerful hurricane season after another, the leadership of the Seminole Tribe of Florida has taken numerous steps to protect its members. Curt Sommerhoff, emergency manager for the tribe, said the efforts have created a security for reservation residents that equals or exceeds measures taken by many cities or counties throughout Florida.

In September 2002, the Seminole Tribe adopted the Florida Building Code as the model for its own construction standards.

DRAYTON, ND - North Dakota's historic 1997 Red River Valley flood nearly spelled doom for one small-town medical clinic.

Inside the building, flood waters rose to six inches. A thick layer of mud covered the floor and mold had begun to grow. Despite efforts to clean and disinfect the building, the medical staff thought the health risk for patients was too high to treat them inside the building. Instead, the staff treated patients in their cars.

KIRKLAND, IL - Les Bellah, former Mayor of Kirkland, Illinois, knows the power of water. According to Bellah, in July 1996, a storm dumped eighteen inches of rain on his town in less than twelve hours. The Kishwaukee River jumped its banks and flooded the Congress Lake Estates Trailer Park. Water came up to the windows of many trailers and left a twofoot-high watermark on Kirkland’s Village Office.

“You don’t realize the power of water until you see it first-hand,” said Bellah. “It’s a hopeless feeling, you just sit and watch and go ‘wow’.”

MERRIAM, KS - On October 4, 1998, a storm dumped 5.6 inches of rain on the City of Merriam in Johnson County, Kansas. Flash flooding damaged structures throughout Merriam and the surrounding county. After the flood, the City and County investigated engineering solutions for the flood area. A buyout was selected as the most economic solution, with the greatest return on investment.

TILLAMOOK COUNTY, OR - The February 1996 floods resulted in the death of 700 dairy animals on the farms in the Tillamook floodplain. Almost every farm lost cows. The flooding on the Nehalem River also had a very significant impact on the Sunset drainage district and all its members, resulting in widespread devastation, as well as damage to the levee system. The district encompasses nearly 1000 acres, most of which is agricultural land supporting six dairy farms. In Nehalem, the Marti Dairy farm lost their whole herd and their house, too.

TILLAMOOK COUNTY, OR ‒ The Port of Tillamook Bay (POTB) sustained damage to its facilities including a railroad line. The POTB Commissioners determined that the public would not be best served by repairing the damaged railroad and requested funding to develop several alternate projects. One of the alternate projects developed, the Southern Flow Corridor, addresses significant flood losses in Tillamook County. The alternate project is designed to reduce damage from repetitive floods, as well as restore significant floodplain and estuarine habitat within the Tillamook Bay watershed.