Stronger Together: Partnerships made a difference in flood recovery now and into the future

By Emily Busse and Alison Sullivan

In the years that have followed the Flood of 2008, countless stories of recovery have emerged. Many share a common thread: the power of partnerships.

Neighbors, friends, strangers, volunteers and more formed partnerships to rise up and rebuild.

“You can never thank them enough, and you can never give enough credit,” says Ann Poe, Cedar Rapids council member. “They were absolutely remarkable, remarkable people who had the greater good of the community in mind.”

‘A long ways to go'

It was late summer 2009, more than a year of flood recovery had been underway and many waterlogged homes remained.

“If you drove through those neighborhoods, you would not have felt substantial progress had been made,” says Jim Ernst, president and CEO of Four Oaks Affordable Housing Network. “So there was a feeling that, though certainly a lot of work had been done and a lot of money spent, there was a feeling that we had a long ways to go.”

That's when Ernst and other non-profit leaders looked for ways to speed up recovery.

They developed Block by Block, which ultimately rehabilitated more than 200 owner-occupied homes. More than 45 houses were restored after being abandoned or purchased by the city's buyout program. The partnership included the Affordable Housing Network, Matthew 25 Ministry Hub and the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Courtney Ball, co-executive director at Matthew 25 Ministry Hub, says the program helped revive recovery.

“All of those sort of helping networks were getting ready to pull out, and I think that Block by Block sort of re-energized the recovery effort,” Ball says.

Community members John and Dyan Smith connected with the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation and donated $1 million to Block by Block. The donation allowed the group to get started without having to wait for government funding, Ball says.

For John Smith, president and CEO of CRST International, when Ernst and the Rev. Clint Twedt-Ball - Matthew 25's co-director - came to him with this idea, he knew he had to take part.

“It was really done on faith,” says Smith, 64. “It was more of an idea than anything but was driven by the fact that neighborhoods wouldn't come back if we didn't do something.”

Program leaders' vision to revive a whole neighborhood instead of just a home here and there meant whole blocks had to work together and form ties that Ernst says he sees still today.

“Those blocks are much closer from a neighbor-to-neighbor point of view than they probably would have been without (the program) because they truly joined together,” he says.

When Gary Ficken's business, Bimm-Ridder Sportswear, sat under 11 feet of water, it was just the beginning of a long, painful journey, but Ficken wasn't alone.

The 2008 flood affected more than 1,100 businesses and industry in Cedar Rapids. Just a few days later, a group organized a meeting for business owners, and more than 500 people showed up. The Small Business Recovery Group quickly realized most businesses did not have flood insurance, and no government aid programs existed for businesses.

“The group evolved into ‘Alright, if we're going to get help, we're going to have to help ourselves,' ” says Ficken, who helped lead the Small Business Recovery Group. “We became much more about working with local, state and federal officials. Unless we want 12,000 jobs to go away overnight, we have to figure out how to help all of us.”

The group became a part of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce Small Business Flood Recovery Task Force, of which Ficken still serves as chairman.

The U.S. Department of Labor predicted Cedar Rapids would lose 55 percent of flooded businesses by the third anniversary. The task force was proud to report only 18 percent closed by Year 3.

The task force created aid packages and developed the case-management program. Ficken says Poe was instrumental in fighting for funding; Poe credits those who banded together to save businesses.

“They were tenacious; they were dedicated,” she says. “... Overall, this was a great group of people who just never gave up.”

The Small Business Recovery Group no longer exists, and the task force is ending this year. Their legacy is a revolving line of credit for flooded businesses.

Ficken says the gratitude of other business owners is what sticks with him the most. He recalls taking his snowblower in for repair after the flood. The man behind the counter said it would take three weeks, but Ficken got a call three hours later saying it was ready.

“The owner came out and I said, ‘Wow. I want to thank you for getting this done so quick. How much do I owe you?' And he just looked at me and he goes, ‘You owe me nothing. I owe you my business,' ” Ficken says, his voice cracking slightly. “Little things like that, that's what makes it all worthwhile.”

‘It's all about connectedness'

Shortly after the river crested, a representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross found Leslie Wright in her office at United Way of East Central Iowa. They told her a long-term recovery group was the next step.

Though Wright says she had no idea what that meant, she sent an email asking people to help. One hundred people showed up to the meeting.

“People came together and they said, ‘Yes, of course we will.' That's the kind of community this is,” Wright says with emotion in her voice.

The group formed the Linn Area Long Term Recovery Coalition, comprised of 70 organizations. They created eight teams to address issues including volunteer management, construction and case advocacy for families.

From August 2008 to August 2010, the coalition brought more than $20.5 million in resources to Linn County, coordinated 639 construction jobs and made more than 28,600 in-person contacts to provide support, among other efforts.

Wright recalls a family who couldn't find temporary housing because they owned a ferret, a parrot and a skunk. The coalition's director, Steve Schmitz, drove to Stone City to pick up an RV to house them.

Though Wright credits recovery to countless individuals and organizations, she also points to the community's innate qualities.

“We're still small enough to be meaningfully connected to each other,” she says. “There's some trust and familiarity that helped us get further faster in the early days.”

In 2010, the coalition transitioned into the Linn Area Partners Active in Disaster, of which Wright is the chairwoman. The group works to remain connected, stay prepared and work with Emergency Management.

“We hope we never have to be in action like we were in 2008, but we're intentionally keeping those connections. So if we do need each other, we're just a phone call or text away,” she says. “... That ability to swing into action together is a blessing that not all communities have.”