Research praises Cedar Rapids flood response

A Harvard researcher putting together case studies of Cedar Rapids' flood response said the city's reaction to the crisis of the flood was exemplary.

Arietta Chakos, director of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Acting in Time Recovery Project, visited Cedar Rapids - which she sees as a "working laboratory" - this week for several days.

"Cedar Rapids, I think, fairly heroically rose to the occasion," she said.

The evacuations of flooded neighborhoods were swift and effective, citizens stepped up to conserve water and save the city's last well, and no lives were lost.

"The fact that no lives were lost, I've never heard of such a thing," she said.

She was impressed by the cooperation between local governments like the city and county. Several branches of local, state and federal government worked together during the flood at the Emergency Operations Center at Kirkwood Community College.

"It's highly unusual for a city and county to be in the same EOC," she said.

Chakos, a former assistant city manager in Berkeley, Calif., who got into government because she was a "pissed-off community member," is developing case studies to give students at the Kennedy School of Government.

She'll give them situations Cedar Rapids faced, and ask what they would do if faced with the same challenges.

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