City Hall front and center as river rises; behind the scenes, Corps and city at odds over future flood protection

CEDAR RAPIDS – Public works crews Thursday morning were practicing how to mobilize a temporary flood-protection system of water-filled bladders called tiger dams.

At midafternoon, the city's emergency response team was holding a news conference.

By last night, more than 100 people turned out at Westdale Mall for a city-sponsored flood forum to hear first hand from the Army Corps of Engineers about just what the long-term future might bring the city in flood protection.

All the while, the river was on the rise.

“After you go through a massive flood like we did in 2008, whenever the river starts to rise, it kind of puts people on pins and needles a little bit,” Mayor Ron Corbett said at last night's forum.

Harder to see at last night's event was the tug of war that is going on between the Army Corps and the city over just what kind of flood protection system to build for the city.

Col. Shawn McGinley, head of the Corps' Rock Island District office, explained last night that the Corps cannot recommend a flood-protection project that doesn't protect a value of property equal to the cost of the flood protection put in place.

McGinley noted that the city's “preferred” protection system, which would protect against the historic flood of 2008, does not meet the Corps' crucial benefit-cost ratio, a fact reported by the Corps in recent weeks.

Chris Haring, the Corps' study manager in Cedar Rapids, told the audience that the Corps is looking at alternatives to the city's preferred plan: One would protect the Quaker plant and the area around it and the Cargill plant below downtown and the area around it. Another option would protect the entire east side of the river from the Quaker plant to the Cargill plant. No protection on the east side of the river would be allowed to exacerbate flooding on the west side of the river, Haring said.

In most of its options, Haring said the Corps is looking at permanent flood walls where the city's plan envisioned more-expensive, removable flood walls in the downtown.

Mayor Corbett and Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, both made it clear in interviews last night that the city continues to push the Corps to reassess the models it is using to assess benefits and costs.

The city's Congressional delegation, Corbett pointed out, is very “tuned in” to the city's concerns about flood protection, and a political solution might be the one that is required, he said.

“We are the second largest city in Iowa, and we can't have a situation where businesses or residents can't feel comfortable about reinvesting in this town,” the mayor said. “A levee and wall system is critical to our future. And we believe we can make a case for the economics of it.”