It is Flood Safety Awareness Week

Floods Affect Virtually the Entire U.S.

Did you know that floods cause more fatalities than more hurricanes or earthquakes? The Red Cross offers some helpful tips to prepare for floods. Flood safety concerns all of us as, in any given year, 30% of floods occur in areas outside of flood plains or in areas that have never before flooded. Unfortunately, this topic remains timely as the Red Cross is establishing emergency shelters at the North Dakota-Minnesota line, in the Red River Valley. This area experienced a major flood in 1997, after which a levee was built to protect Fargo, North Dakota. Flood stage is defined as a water height of 18 feet; some forecasters believe that the Red River could rise as high as 52 feet within the week, worse than the conditions in 1997, which floods destroyed vast swaths of Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, on opposite banks of the river. The National Guard have been called up to fortify the area with sandbags, dikes and other provisions.

In another part of the country, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is preparing for the 2009 flood season even as it has not yet recovered from the major flood which struck that community nine months ago. More than 5,000 homes and 700 businesses in Cedar Rapids were damaged or destroyed. Even now, nine months later, some areas have overnight curfews, there are entire neighborhoods that remain empty and others were residents continue to live in FEMA trailers. City Hall continues to operate from a temporary location. It will take at least a decade to build permanent flood walls and levees and with the economic recession and budget shortfalls for both Iowa and Cedar Rapids, funding is not readily available for the work. Meanwhile, the residents experience anxiety when it rains, a not-uncommon emotional response following a major disaster. As disasters such as the floods in the midwestern states recede from the news headlines, it is easy to forget the ongoing recovery needs of affected communities. Let’s use the occasion of March, National Red Cross Month, to reach out to Cedar Rapids and other communities that continue to need support.