Questions to be answered

-- How did the FEMA map get updated in 2007?
- Was the base flow for the 100 and 500 year floods refigured in the light of changes in upstream land use (urbanization, tiling of farmland etc.)?
- Was the hydrology of the river valley in Iowa City reworked to account for post 1993 developments such as the laser center and the arts campus levee improvements?
-Why do the FEMA flood boundaries bear such little relationship to the topography on the county GIS?

--The FEMA base flood map draws boundaries that undulate up and down contour lines, as if the flood maps are based on very coarse topographic data.-- The city can ask for a reclassification of land in the floodplain, from 500-year floodplain to 100-year floodplain, based on what we have learned from this flood. Would there be an advantage to us or to the city in asking for this?

-- What is the metric by which FEMA evaluates buyout plans? We understand that it is not as simple as whether the homes covered by the plan are in the 100 year flood plain or not. We have been led to understand that contiguity, likelihood of damage, and even willingness of the potential seller figure into the story.

-- What barriers are there to raising the normal peak outflow of the reservoir from 10,000 to 12,000 cfs. We note that this would have allowed the reservoir to be drawn down to a level that could have significantly reduced peak flood levels in the city. We understand that the elevation of North Dubuque Street may be one barrier, but are there others?

-- For FEMA and the corps, how can programs for flood mitigation and buyout be made to cooperate? It appears as things stand that the borderline between a buyout and a mitigation project must be drawn in advance of any project initiation, while a more realistic planning process might involve redrawing borders between properties to be protected by a levee (a mitigation project) and properties to outside the levee to be bought out after the willing property owners have been identified and after the total available funding has been determined.

-- The community must have a hazard mitigation plan as a condition for participation in the national flood insurance program. What is our plan? If we don't have a plan, how have we gotten by without one? If we do have a plan, what components of that plan have been implemented.-- What is the state's flood hazard mitigation plan?

All of the above questions apply there as well.-- How will FEMA and or the state divide buyout money between communities when, for example, Oakville, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and Palo all have big needs, but they are so different? Given identically risk-prone houses in each community, assuming comparable value and occupancy, which will get a buyout?

-- Does FEMA's budget drive their black-box formula for buyouts, or do they prioritize buyouts without regard to the available funding, and then spend what they can.

-- How do basements and half-basements (as in split foyer homes) factor into the determination of mitigarion and buyout elegibility? Does the extent to which a basement was finished matter?-- Is the corps contemplating a new review of dam management policies comparable to the review they released in 1997 after the flood of '93?

--Will the City ask a representative of the Corps of Engineers to attend the Townhall meeting and answer questions?