Coralville: 'We are taking action'

As the Iowa River swelled on Thursday and threatened homes, streets and buildings in Iowa City, neighboring Coralville deployed 4,000-foot tubes of sand but said sandbagging was not yet necessary.

On Friday, Coralville leaders asked volunteers to start sandbagging.

“We are trying to identify places that are vulnerable and address it that way,” Coralville Assistant City Administrator Ellen Habel said.

The rising Iowa River and Clear Creek, which runs behind businesses along the north side of the Coralville Strip, are among the concerns for the city.

And crews have spent the last five years making improvements and investments in flood mitigation infrastructure to avoid a repeat of the devastation that shuttered numerous businesses and threatened homes during the 2008 flood.

Protection working

Those improvements include construction of flood protection walls and berms along the former Edgewater Drive and erection of earthen berms, and permanent and removable flood walls along the west side of Clear Creek.

Habel said many of the city's mitigation efforts have been completed and already have made a difference. (For more details, click here.)

“Those areas where we have finished the improvements are working,” she said. “At this point five years ago, Edgewater Drive would have been flooded.”

As for plans that remain unfinished and the areas that remain unprotected, Habel said, “We are taking action.”

One spot needing supplemental flood protection right now is the Iowa River Power Restaurant on First Avenue, where work on a flood wall has been completed just short of the popular eatery.

Restaurant manager Matt Winchester arrived about noon Friday with employees, community volunteers and city officials hoping to fill the gap left by the unfinished wall with sandbags. Three hours later, a makeshift barrier was higher than water levels during the 2008 flood, and Winchester said he's hoping to avoid any interruption in business this time around.

“We are going to fight tooth and nail to not be affected as much as possible,” he said.

Water from the Iowa River looked to be almost level with the Iowa River Power parking lot on Friday, and Winchester said the threat came fast and took him and other managers by surprise.

Down the road at The Vine Tavern, 39 Second St., management is hoping the city's flood mitigation efforts over the last five years will be enough to keep them dry.

“I know it's going to get worse than it is right now, but I'm just hoping the city learned from the last one and took measures, and it won't be as bad this time,” said general manager Dan Wilkerson. “I guess we'll see.”

The Vine took in four feet of water in 2008, but Wilkerson said the city has since erected a flood wall and is in the process of raising the CRANDIC railroad embankment. Even though that project is not complete, Wilkerson said, he's hopeful the work they've done will be enough to withstand this flood. (For a look at additional photos of flood preparation, click here.)

Coralville Lake

The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday projected the Coralville Lake will peak at 712.1 feet on June 8 and could topple the spillway on Tuesday. The Corps also increased outflows from the reservoir to 17,000 cubic feet per second on Friday, prompting mandatory evacuations in Iowa City.

The United Way emergency volunteer center is coordinating sandbagging efforts in Iowa City and Coralville. Assistant City Administrator Habel said Coralville's sandbags will be used throughout the community - wherever floodwaters seem most threatening.

All of the flood protection improvements that Coralville has made since 2008 were designed to protect to one foot above the 2008 flood levels.

Other improvements include:

• Reconstruction of the First Avenue Bridge over Clear Creek, making it higher and longer.
• Improvement of the storm sewer system on First Avenue, from Clear Creek to Sixth Street.
• Construction of four stormwater pump stations along the Iowa River, from Clear Creek to Interstate 80.
• Installation of duckbills and sluice gates in 10 locations in the existing stormwater system to prevent the backup of high water levels in the Iowa River and Clear Creek from flooding neighborhoods.
• Construction of earthen berms and permanent and removable flood walls along the west side of Clear Creek from Highway 6 to Biscuit Creek and along Biscuit Creek from Clear Creek to Fifth Street.

Crews are in the process of building two stormwater pump stations on Clear Creek, upgrading two existing stormwater pump stations and flood-proofing the Third Avenue sanitary sewer lift station. The project is expected to be complete this fall.