Summary of Parkview Terrace Meeting 06/21/08

Park View Terrace (Mosquito Flats) neighborhood meeting highlights
June 21, 3-5:30 p.m., Iowa City Public Library, meeting room A

I. General
Steve McGuire (825 Eastmoor, elevation 651.8) outlined meeting aims: To hear from our elected representatives, gather information and get questions aired, even if they cannot all be answered yet. This will be first of many meetings, with the purpose being “to move forward collectively on behalf of all individuals” in the neighborhood. “No decisions have been made.”
The room was packed to overflowing. Public officials present for all or part included IC Mayor Regina Bailey, City Manager Michael Lombardo, Police Chief Sam Hargadine, U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, and about 20 others, including city representatives from public works, planning, building management, housing and inspection services; county emergency management; governor’s office; FEMA and SBA. Official statements were blessedly short; most of the time was devoted to Q & A (and a lot of non-A as well).

II. Informational items

A. Contacts
• Iowa City flood call center number still operating: 887-6202.
• Mayor Regina Bailey’s cell phone number: 319-321-1385
• Rep. Dave Loebsack’s flood line: 866-914-IOWA; our immediate contact is Dave Lesch.
• Starting Monday, United Way Volunteer Center will open to match volunteers with people’s needs (e.g., cleanup help). Phone number to come.
• FEMA: 800-621-FEMA; also FEMA and SBA reps at Disaster Recovery Center that opened Thursday at Johnson County Fairgrounds, 4260 Oakcrest Hill Rd. SE, hours 8 am to 7 pm.

B. City doings & procedures
Access: Evacuation order lifted for non-vehicular access to all houses on Manor, Eastmoor, Park Place and Grenada Court, as well as Normandy #s 515, 516, 520, 527 & 539. This means people may go in by foot during non-curfew hours (6 am to 8:30 pm).
Hoping the neighborhood can have traffic access “in the next day or two” (Lombardo); must be able to drive fire engines/emergency vehicles in before opening roads.
Housing folks have been touring neighborhood doing external assessments—they and police assured that no houses will be entered without residents’ presence/permission. If any houses are structurally unsafe—signified by a red placard—the owner will be contacted; but none of those are expected; most homes should allow for “limited re-entry.”
Utilities: The city is working with Midamerican Energy on isolating electrical services and planning for restoration of power. Electrical systems in houses that took in water are compromised and must be inspected by a licensed electrician—who will determine what needs to be done and then contacts the city for obtaining the release for resumption of energy service. Some homes with upper levels might be able to get power to the upper level first. Midamerican also is considering the use of temporary electric poles that would provide for service outside of houses to enable people to use equipment.
The city is getting water and sewer re-established, and will be dealing with flooded sanitary sewer station in the coming week and restarting water supplies, which involves pressurizing, flushing and bacterial testing. Make sure the main water valve in your home is turned off (if possible – some are still underwater in basements) to allow for proper testing. Resumption must be done carefully and slowly. It sounds like people are likely to have water back before well-functioning sewers, and should avoid using toilets and showers and sinks since the sewage would just slop into neighboring properties.
Those with water in basements should be cautious in pumping: The proper procedure is to pump down just a foot at a time, and wait an hour, and if the water comes back up stop pumping. Draining too quickly could endanger the house foundation. As for pumping out water that contains sewage—a little more in the street won’t hurt.
Residents can start now arranging for professionals to inspect and work on homes in order to obtain resumption of utilities – a licensed electrician for electricity, a licensed plumber and/or gas pipe installer for gas and water.
Sun, rain, fresh air & time will do a lot to remedy the situation; just be careful, wear gloves and rubber boots, don’t go wandering down the streets as long as water remains, and watch out for manhole covers that have blown off below the surface.
Waste disposal: The city also is planning for debris pick-up from curbside—and hopes to be able to handle that with “grapple” trucks; if not, placing dumpsters in some areas might be considered.
Will city remove sandbags? Eventually, yes; but no haste to dismantle sandbag dikes since water’s still high and they serve as protection in case of additional rain. What about heavy equipment on saturated soil? Care shall be taken to avoid threatening house foundations, which may require volunteer labor to get sandbags carried out to curb for pickup. (Unofficial voice poll indicated getting home debris picked up first is a much higher priority to most than getting rid of sandbags!)
Security: The police indends to “stay present” in flooded neighborhoods until... well, whenever.

C. FEMA and other agency/bureaucracy stuff
The key thing is document everything! Take photographs, keep receipts, keep track of what you remove/discard and make sure you have proof of losses.
After registering by phone or on web with FEMA, you’ll receive a FEMA packet (white envelope) and an SBA packet (brown envelope) by mail. Read everything (doh), and fill out the SBA loan application (homeowners get home loan app, business owners get biz loan app) and send it back – which does not mean you have to take out a loan, but it’s part of the process and necessary for determining needs and financial stability, etc. These materials/applications also are available at the Disaster Recovery Center.
FEMA will schedule someone to come to your home and assess the damage; the inspector will contact you (some people in the neighborhood already have had a FEMA inspector in). The SBA also will send someone to assess cleanup, reconstruction and replacement needs. (FEMA registration triggers the FEMA inspection, and the loan application triggers the SBA inspection.)
The SBA provides loans of up to $200,000 to rebuild homes and $40,000 to replace damaged personal property. No straightforward information was forthcoming on what FEMA can provide in grants, although it hinges partly on financial circumstances.
Those with flood insurance should contact their insurance agent and file a claim as soon as possible; and/or see a “mitigation adviser” at the Disaster Recovery Center.

D. More from the feds
Rep. Loebsack reminisced about his day of sandbagging (so he’s 55—so is your recording secretary) and offered to help rip up soggy carpet. More seriously, he said he plans to be back in his district every weekend, and he’s even canceled an Iraq/Afghanistan trip next weekend.
Iowa’s delegation of 2 senators and 5 reps have been working “in bipartisan fashion” and the results are “pretty heartening”—they got Bush’s original allocation of 1.8 billion toward emergency relief up to 2.65 billion; and President Bush and OMB director/former congressman Jim Nussle are “on board with this.” However, it’s just beginning; final costs won’t be known for some time.

E. Water stuff
The water level in Iowa City now, after subsiding, is approximately where it was at its highest in 1993. Some people wondered about the much stricter limitations on access compared with 1993, even now, and the explanation was that not only are different city personnel making the decisions but the levels and flow and jeopardy this time was much greater.
By next Tuesday afternoon, the Coralville reservoir should be down to the level of the emergency spillway, and then gates will be kept open until the reservoir reaches 707 elevation, and then the flow will be regulated to drop no more than a foot a day to maintain stability.
Can pumps on Normandy be turned back on? Quite a number of people spoke up suggesting it’s time and that this would help in a couple of places—noting that when the pumps were turned off, the water immediately rushed in not from the river but from the street trains.

III. Questions without clear answers at present

A. Some specific short-term questions
Will city be able to offer temporary property tax relief to affected homeowners—since, unlike after a tornado, property values will drop precipitously as result of land houses sit on? This would take an act of the City Council and would need to be consistent with state law, etc.
Can the city be more realistic about property assessments? Funny thing, just months after the 1993 floods some residents experienced large hikes in their assessments! (No specific response to this, but the message was clear.)
What about breaks on water bills? Again, city lawyers will need to look into this.
Moratoriums on mortgage payments? Contact your lender; it’s possible.
Other resources? Local banks are coming up with flood loan programs—e.g., UI Community Credit Union offering up to $5,000 for up to 60 months at 5% interest.

B. The big unknown—buyouts and/or/vs. rebuilding
Many residents expressed interest in a buyout possibility. The city has not had enough time to study all the options and really had nothing to say on this yet; they are in information-gathering mode this week. People expressed frustration at lack of ability to make a decision on whether to proceed with rebuilding/restoration or wait and see or what and how much to do—and had lots of questions about whether investments in reconstruction would be deducted from buyout prices or not, etc. The city needs to fully understand how buyout programs work, but in any case it has to be a community/city decision and would be totally voluntary, with individuals deciding whether to participate or not. The timeline is unclear but it seems to be long. Clearly some patience is called for as we await further information on this.
Important point: If your home is within the 100-year floodplain and sustained more than 50% damage of its pre-flood value and you rebuilt, or if you’re doing significant remodeling, you must rebuild so the lowest enclosed floor is one-foot above the base flood elevation (651 above sea level).

C. Finally—accountability and long-term flood prevention
County and city officials were commended for their response to the flood, but there was lots of explicit as well as implicit criticism of the Army Corps of Engineers—which did not have any representatives at the meeting. There’s a feeling that more could have been done strategically, e.g., earlier discharge of higher-than-usual waters from the Coralville Reservoir in the spring. People also want more information on the effects of the coffer dam being used in a University of Iowa construction project; there were no UI reps at the meeting either (despite the large contingent of UI faculty/staff among those displaced).
The city also will be looking at other sources and uses of federal money—for flood prevention and control, e.g., through floodwalls, floodgates and levees.
We should be able to pursue some of this at an upcoming meeting, to be devoted to hydrology issues. Stay tuned.