Too Much Water But None to Drink Iowa Flooding Too Much Water But None to Drink

Record Flooding of 2008 Seven river basins at or exceed record flood levels Cedar, Iowa & Des Moines Rivers “Wide as Mississippi” Overtopped & failed levees in several river basins flooded several towns: Oakville, Palo, Wapello and others

2008 38,000 displaced, countless more lives disrupted Cedar Rapids, second largest city in Iowa 3,000 homes impacted Multiple cities suffer water, sewer, major disruption for days Many small towns “lost what makes them towns”: schools, grocery, gas stations

Response The Governor proclaimed 84 counties disaster areas covering nearly 45,000 sq. miles and almost 700 towns and cities 4,000 Iowa Air & Army Guard on state active duty/1,600 deployed Sheltered over 1,000 animals in rescue shelters Combined Law effort, State, County, Local, 7 Counties opened 97 Shelters for over 9,000 people

State Emergency Operations Center SEOC State Emergency Operations Center

SEOC Activation in Iowa State resources are required for a response to a disaster because resources at local level have been exceeded Each agency’s role is defined in the Iowa Emergency Response Plan Number of agencies responding varies depending on the type and severity of the disaster

SEOC Activation Agency central office operations staff respond to the SEOC Two 13 hour shifts per day if needed PIO office may staff differently Each agency has one or more computers File cabinet to store agency specific information WEB EOC – Event tracking and mission assignment software

State Emergency Operations Center Opens – 2008: May 25th DNR Emergency Response Unit plus water supply from CO respond on 6/8/08 Unified Command – Funnel all information through SEOC coordinates emergency response through county coordinators Public policy through Governor’s office Rumor control through public information

Disaster Status The county EOC has the same function as the State EOC Coordination of resources to respond to disaster efficiently and effectively All requests for assistance by local utilities, businesses, agencies etc., must flow through county EOC (28E agreements exempted) Example, WW plant needs a pump

Disaster Status The county determines if the need can be met with local resources If not, the county will notify the SEOC and a request will be logged into WEB EOC SEOC will then assign a mission to an agency or agencies to deliver resources to the community

Emergency Management Compacts IMAC Iowa Mutual Aid Compact (2002) County to county agreement (91) Built on EMAC principles Participation does not require a response Used during local or state disasters or exercises Requests managed by HSEMD

Emergency Management Compacts EMAC Emergency Management Assistance Compact (1996) State to state agreement (50 states) Allows exchange of funds, personnel and resources and liability coverage Participation does not require a response Used during state or presidential disasters

Emergency Management Compacts EMAC Iowa requested Highway patrol staff Incident Management Teams County Emergency Management Coordinators Environmental & Public Health Teams States Responding MN, NE, KS, MS, VA, DE, CO, FL, NC

Emergency Management Compacts WARN Water & Wastewater Agency Response Network Similar to IMAC and EMAC Private Utilities May Participate No disaster declaration required

Offers of Assistance I offered assistance during the incident, how come no one contacted me? A local jurisdiction must first request the assistance Too many people responding can slow down and confuse the response Offers of assistance must be vetted/verified Self deployment or free lancers can be a problem

DNR Lessons Learned ER staff needs to notify DNR when the SEOC opens and when it closes DNR needs assistance in SEOC during large incidents DNR needs to write up a canned message for staff to refer to if they are contacted about offers of personnel or resources

SEOC Lessons Learned Utilize CI/KR and GIS based mapping Link elements back to interactive flood mapping Identify impacted resources based on flood projections

Contact John Benson Michael Anderson Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management John.benson@iowa.gov Michael Anderson Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources 515/725-0336 michael.anderson@dnr.iowa.gov