An Iowa flood study taking shape this fall

Laura Millsaps in the Ames Tribune (Iowa): The city of Ames will partner with Iowa State University, Story County and the Iowa Department of Transportation this fall to study the community’s ability to respond to flooding in the future. At the Ames City Council meeting Tuesday, city staff proposed holding a series of public meetings with affected businesses and homeowners, research experts, emergency responders and surrounding communities, to be followed by meteorological and engineering studies of the area.

The information gathered would be combined to construct flood response and prevention scenarios that could include changes in the city’s building codes, public infrastructure projects and beefed-up disaster-response policies. The City Council first requested the study in September in reaction to flooding in August that had left Story County awash and the city of Ames without clean drinking water for days.

A similar study was launched after flooding in 1993. Completed in 1996, that study suggested widening and straightening stream channels, clearing bridge channels and building upstream reservoirs. However, those projects were considered too costly, and only modifications to the city’s flood plain development standards were implemented.

Assistant City Manager Bob Kindred told the council the new plan was intended to take into consideration all aspects of local flooding, including current and future development, current infrastructure, changing weather patterns, public policy and regulations. “One very important difference from the process we followed, after the floods of 1993, is the addition of the step to assess prediction of future intense rainfall events,” Kindred said....

In Ames, Iowa, Squaw Creek overflows its banks and inundates area businesses. Hundreds of residents were evacuated from their homes and were forced to boil their drinking water. Jace Anderson/FEMA