The Nation's Responses To Flood Disasters: A Historical Account

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52 The Nation’s Responses to Flood Disasters: A Historical Account continued through at least fiscal year 1987, the last year for which information was available. 133 The USGS maintained a network of nearly 7,000 stream gages nationally. These gages provided the actual stream flow history from past floods; data which is critical in predicting future flood events when mapping flood hazard areas. National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) used USGS stream gage data, combined with predicted rainfall and/or snowmelt to forecast flood stages and provide flood forecasts and warnings to communities and citizens. The NWS also tracked the paths of hurricanes and other coastal storms and issued forecasts and warnings. These warnings often resulted in population evacuations from threatened areas and, in some instances, the relocation of damageable property from harm. Despite large increases in population living in or near riverine and coastal flood hazard areas, the number of deaths due to flooding essentially remained constant over the last half of the century. This was due to greatly improved warnings from the NWS as a result of both technology and process. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Representatives of the EPA’s Office of Wetland Protection provided the Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force with an increased understanding of the importance of natural resources and the functions that floodplains provide. The wetland protection office sponsored or actively participated in a number of workshops throughout the country on this subject. EPA’s other contributions include • supporting adoption of a second floodplain management goal, preserving and restoring the natural resources and functions of floodplains, in the 1994 report on A Unified National Program for Floodplain Management, • preparing a well-constructed guide for local officials on protecting floodplain resources, 134 and • promoting river restoration and integrating floodplain and wetland management programs in conjunction with the ASFPM and the Association of State Wetland Managers. 133 Ibid. 134 Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force, Protecting Floodplain Resources: A Guidebook for Communities (Smardon and Felleman, FEMA publication 268, 1996).
The 1970s and 1980s: The Flood Insurance Era 53 THE ASSOCIATION OF STATE FLOODPLAIN MANAGERS In the late 1950s, water resources officials from some dozen Midwest states (Ohio to the Dakotas) started meeting annually to discuss common concerns with flooding, including flood control, hydrology, mapping, and other water resource issues. These conferences opened channels of communication among the states for airing interstate issues. Working together over a period that spanned several decades, the officials developed an understanding and respect of each other's positions on how to address flood problems, problems that often extended beyond state boundaries and among numerous federal agencies. This experience set the table for the subsequent formation of a national association, and annual conferences, of state floodplain managers that ultimately replaced the annual Midwestern States Water Resources and Flood Control Conferences. A number of these officials played lead roles in creating the ASFPM. The ASFPM evolved from a number of issues related to the NFIP. The principal issues consisted of identifying flood-hazard areas and adopting local floodplain regulation. Of the federal Region V states—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin—five had statutory authority that affected the preparation of flood insurance studies. Several had active floodplain management programs that pre-dated the NFIP. By the mid-1970s, the states had trouble fulfilling the needs of the accelerated flood insurance study program because they could not complete their study reviews in a timely manner. FIA officials held a meeting with the Region V states in Chicago in November 1976 to discuss coordination problems and other NFIP issues. At this meeting, the states decided to meet the following year during the regional FIA meeting. Concerned with delays in issuing flood insurance study reports, the FIA, in August 1977, decided to circumvent the state review and approval process that occurred prior to sending the studies to local governments for use in local floodplain management programs. The states in Region V objected to this unilateral policy and indicated that studies without state approval would not be used for regulation in the state. In October 1977, the FIA met with the Region V state coordinators in Chicago. 135 As a result of this meeting, the FIA revised the study policy and addressed other issues. The states’ success in reversing this policy change solidified their cause and pushed them to form an association that eventually evolved into the ASFPM, an organization that acts on their collective behalf. 135 Attendees at the 1977 meeting between the FIA and the Region V state coordinators included French Wetmore, Brent McMahon, Larry Sanders, Chuck Morris and Frank Rupp from Illinois; Gordon Lance and Bill Trakimas from Indiana; Jim Boulton and Dan Morgan from Michigan; Pat Bloomgren and Jim Wright from Minnesota; Peter Finke from Ohio; and Larry Larson, Terry Hampton, and Tom Muellner from Wisconsin.
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The Nation’s Responses To Flood D
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The floodplain management community
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to th
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CONTENTS National Weather Service .
Page 13 and 14: OVERVIEW The floods of the 1990s an
Page 15 and 16: 1 PRE-20TH CENTURY: ISSUES OF FEDER
Page 17 and 18: Pre-20th Century: Issues of Federal
Page 19 and 20: 2 THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY: A GROWING
Page 21 and 22: The Early 20th Century: A Growing F
Page 23 and 24: The Early 20th Century: A Growing F
Page 25 and 26: 3 THE 1930S TO THE 1960S: BROADENIN
Page 27 and 28: The 1930s to the 1960s: Broadening
Page 43: The 1930s to the 1960s: Broadening
Page 46 and 47: 34 The Nation’s Responses to Floo
Page 48 and 49: 36 National floodplain mapping begi
Page 79 and 80: 6 THE 1990S: DISASTER ASSISTANCE PR
Page 81 and 82: The 1990s: Disaster Assistance Prev
Page 105: The 1990s: Disaster Assistance Prev
Page 112 and 113: APPENDIX B: SELECT PUBLICATIONS, FE
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GLOSSARY ASFPM, “the Association
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