Rebuilding Iowa: Now let lawmakers follow citizens’ lead

Font Size:

By Times staff | Saturday, September 6, 2008 7:54 PM CDT | () comments

Iowa’s flood relief work

didn’t end when the water receded. Some of the same folks who hauled sandbags, scooped mud and pitched in for the cleanup went immediately to work on the innovative Rebuild Iowa Commission.

The commission’s initial recommendations released last week fuel a sense of urgency that must be carried forward by lawmakers.

It’s a sense of urgency that may escape many Quad-Citians. For much of our metro area, the flood was a pesky inconvenience, here, then gone, back again, then gone. But for thousands and thousands of Iowans, the record-setting Cedar and Iowa rivers flooding changed communities forever.

“Cedar Rapids will never be the same,” said Sheri Carnahan, an AFSCME Iowa Council 61 representative from Davenport called to serve on the Economic and Workforce Development Task Force. She’s visited the flooded areas to help displaced workers and said the damage is unlike anything experienced around here.

Conversations with some of our community’s Rebuild Iowa Commission volunteers emphasized that Iowa must not focus on simply restoring flood-damaged areas. It must rebuild smartly with an eye on an inevitable repeat of this disaster. All we spoke with emphasized with certainty that Iowans will someday see floods at this level again.

The commission recommendations included on this page emphasize specific action needed now to restore businesses, shelter those still without homes from the upcoming winter and, most of all, prepare Iowa for upcoming floods.

The urgent action of the Rebuild Iowa Commission unpaid volunteers requires an equally urgent response by our paid legislators. Already, some lawmakers are piling on unrelated suggestions. Others are wary that once assembled, lawmakers will get sidetracked on smoking bans or prison funding or other partisan distractions.

Such typical legislative histrionics would dishonor the hundreds of Iowans who endured record-setting flooding, then immediately went to work on the Rebuild Iowa commission task forces. Lawmakers can honor these volunteers by returning to Des Moines to act on these recommendations with the same urgency and focus shown by the task force members.

Commission recommendations

1.Provide advice and support to individuals and families, businesses, farmers, nonprofit organizations, and others seeking assistance in making their way through the challenges of rebuilding their lives in

a “case management”

framework.

2.Ensure immediate needs housing for all who need to be relocated, temporarily or permanently, before cold weather arrives.

3.Provide incentives immediately for Iowa’s struggling small businesses, microenterprises and non-profits for restoration

and rebuilding of their

businesses.

4.Complete floodplain mapping for the entire state.

5.Identify and create funding options and provide flexibility for local and state governments to assist Iowa in rebuilding an even better Iowa.

6.Expedite the flow of funds from the federal level, through the state, and to the local levels of

government.

7.Provide resources and capacity to ensure

public health is maintained.

Quad-Citians in the rebuilding process

Glenn Leach, Davenport

Leach volunteers in the Diocese of Davenport Social Action Office, and participated on the Long-term Recovery Planning Task Force. He encouraged the use of case managers to coordinate assistance to individuals. He attended the group’s meeting in Urbandale.

Leach commended the process and especially the emphasis on “rebuilding smarter rather than just replacing everything that existed.”

He also noted, “everyone present was clear there was likely to be a repeat of this flood on some sort of scale in the future.”

Shulin Graham, Bettendorf

Graham’s participation on the Floodplain Management and Hazard Mitigation Task Force came about in an unlikely way. Graham worked with a group of about 100 Chinese-Americans living in Chicago who were inspired to come to Iowa to offer help. They’d been awed by the American response to Chinese earthquakes and wanted to give back.

The group stayed at the Marriott Courtyard in Bettendorf for a week, incurring well over $40,000 in lodging, car rental and meal expenses.

Graham, a China native living in Bettendorf, served as interpreter and encountered difficulties getting these willing volunteers involved in flood cleanup. After her calls to various agencies, she was invited to join the task force.

She was unable to attend the task force’s single meeting, but encouraged better, centralized planning so that volunteers can be quickly put to work where they’re needed most.

Marianne Doonan, Eldridge

Doonan is a senior planner for Bi-State Regional Commission and served on the Hazard Mitigation Task Force. She participated in its meeting in West Des Moines. A chief recommendation was updating floodplain maps statewide.

“It was kind of surprising to all of us how old some of the FEMA maps were.”

“One of the things that flowed to the top of the list was housing, getting people in quickly.”

Doonan began work at Bi-State in 1993 and recalled similar efforts after that flood. “Something similar happened in 1993. Pulling together all of these organizations to talk across the table was something brand new, then. Iowa drew on that experience and was able to move much faster this time.”

Amy Groskopf, Davenport

Groskopf was called for the Records Retention and Cultural Heritage Task Force, but was out of town for its meeting. She said her group recommended the legislature establish record-keeping retention schedules and processes to protect valuable archives on a systemic basis, detailing, “which records to keep and how long they keep them.”

“These are things that people in our field have seen as a need for a long time,” she said.

Area participants

Thirty Quad-City area residents were among the 600 volunteers serving on Rebuild Iowa task forces.

Floodplain Management and

Hazard Mitigation

- Marianne Doonan, senior planner,

Bi-State Regional Commission, Eldridge.

- Shulin Graham, translator,

Bettendorf.

- Sen. Jim Hahn, Muscatine.

- Larry Roehl, engineer, Louisa County, Wapello.

- Timothy Schemmel, public defender, Muscatine.

Agriculture and Environment

- Warren Kemper, Iowa Corn

Growers Association, Wapello.

- Rep. Tom Sands, Columbus

Junction.

- Sen. Frank Wood, Eldridge.

Economic and Workforce Development

- Sheri Carnahan, AFSCME Iowa Council 61, Davenport.

- Mallory Smith, M Smith Agency, Columbus Junction.

Education

- Gloria Avant-Moody, Bettendorf.

Housing

- Rep. Tom Schueller, Maquoketa.

- Kurt Ossman, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Davenport.

- Karen Cooney, City of Muscatine, Muscatine.

- Nitza Lopez-Castillo, co-chair, Community Development Center, Columbus Junction.

Infrastructure and Transportation

- John Root, Muscatine Power and Water, Muscatine.

- Ronald Durbin, AET, Wapello.

Long-term Recovery Planning

- Glenn Leach, Diocese of Davenport, Davenport.

- Craig Malin, City of Davenport, Davenport.

- Tamara Shipman, nurse /supervisor, Great River Home Health Care and Hospice, Wapello.

- Michael Stadie, Lutheran Services in Iowa, Davenport.

- Greg Jenkins, Greater Muscatine Chamber, Muscatine.

- Pamela Miner, City of Davenport, Davenport.

- Clayton Lloyd, retired, Davenport.

- Kimberly Warren, Slavin Management Consultants, Muscatine.

- William Phelan, Greater Muscatine Chamber, Muscatine.

Public Health and Health care

- Rep. Elesha Gayman, Davenport

- Alana Poage, Louisa County Public Health, Wapello

Records Retention and Cultural Heritage

- Amy Groskopf, Davenport Public Library, Davenport.

Cultural Heritage

- Wendi Laake, Generations AAA, Davenport.