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

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64 The Nation’s Responses to Flood Disasters: A Historical Account Building on Kusler’s earlier work and leadership, the Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force conducted a number of regional and national workshops from 1987 to 1992. These workshops focused on the natural resources and functions of floodplains, multi-objective planning, and the various regulatory and protection techniques commonly employed. The well-attended workshops attracted considerable interest from local, state and federal officials. Kusler’s work on integrating floodplain and wetland management approaches continued during the last two decades of the 1900s. He was instrumental in forming the Association of State Wetland Managers in 1982 and has served as its executive director since that time. The Association seeks to strengthen state, federal, and local wetlands programs by facilitating and improving cooperation among these governmental entities, and by integrating public, private, and academic efforts to achieve wetland protection and management goals. It has carried out many cooperative activities with those in the floodplain management community. All the previous work promoting the importance and integration of natural resources in floodplain management efforts set the stage for latter advancements. Over the past few decades, better methodologies have developed to identify and quantify the natural resources in relatively undisturbed floodplains, the beneficial functions they perform, and how these benefits can be impaired or even lost. This greater understanding of floodplain function led to other important milestones including: • The 1994 document, A Unified National Program for Floodplain Management, groups floodplain resources into three categories—water, biologic, and societal—and lists the natural functions they provide. • In 1994, the Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force, with funding from the EPA and the Corps, commissioned a guidebook for community officials and other interested parties to aid in developing local programs to protect and restore important floodplain resources and functions. Protecting Floodplain Resources: A Guide for Communities provides information on flood hazard mitigation methods to preserve the integrity of floodplain natural systems. 149 • A section of the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994 150 established a federal interagency Task Force on Natural and Beneficial Functions of the Floodplain comprised of a number of nationally recognized experts who can identify floodplain functions and develop recommendations. The task force convened in 1996 to identify the natural and beneficial functions of the floodplain that reduce floodrelated losses, and develop recommendations on how to reduce flood losses by protecting these functions. The group’s report is expected in 2000 or shortly after. 149 Federal Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force, Protecting Floodplain Resources. 150 P. L. 103-325.
A Growing Interest in the Environment 65 • A 1998 report by the National Wildlife Federation focused on efforts to restore floodplains through voluntary buyouts and relocations of homes and other structures from high-risk flood areas. 151 It included sections on the history of buyout programs in the United States and the 1993 Midwest flood. This increasing awareness of natural resources and functions is tempered by the absence of sufficient nationwide data to accurately measure the success or failure of current management approaches devoted to resource protection and restoration. The inability to provide for a quantifiable measurement has hindered needed policy changes, incorporation of natural resource protection into floodplain management decisionmaking, and a share of limited fiscal resources. 151 Higher Ground: A Report on Voluntary Property Buyouts in the Nation’s Floodplains, (National Wildlife Federation, 1998).
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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 .
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OVERVIEW The floods of the 1990s an
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1 PRE-20TH CENTURY: ISSUES OF FEDER
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Pre-20th Century: Issues of Federal
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2 THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY: A GROWING
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The Early 20th Century: A Growing F
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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
Page 114: GLOSSARY ASFPM, “the Association
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