Post Flood Alternatives Suggested

I've put together an entirely amateur perspective on post-flood
alternatives facing the Mosquito Flats neighborhood. I'll have
a few copies at the meeting tonight. See the following PDF
document.
-- http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/flood08/alternatives.pdf
In sum, I looked at flood control alternatives for the neighborhood
including an ambitious levee proposal, then thought about the
cost-benefit tradeoffs and alternative levee routes.
All the sensible alternatives I can think of seem to point toward
making buyout offers to those with riverfront property in the
neighborhood, since no sensible plan for protecting the neighborhood
would protect those houses.
Whether or not it is sensible to buy out the rest of the neighborhood
depends on whether the buyout would be less expensive than elevating
Normandy Drive (with a continuation into City park and up to the bluff
along the bike trail) to serve as a levee protecting the majority of
the neighborhood. I can't see any senisble reason to build a
protection barrier farther inland, because the length of the barrier
seems almost as long if you build it along Manor Drive, but the number
of houses that benefit is incredibly smaller.
Doug Jones
jones@cs.uiowa.edu