Flooding Mississippi River - Blowing Up Levees and Returning Floodplains

This morning, the Mississippi River crested in Memphis, rising just shy of the all-time record height of 48.7 feet set during the great 1937 flood. The river, normally half a mile wide at Memphis, is now about three miles wide.  The only reason that this flood didn't set a new record was because the Army Corps of Engineers blasted levees and opened up two "floodways."  Find full articles via GOOD Magazine

Should We Follow the Dutch and Give Land Back to the Flooding Mississippi River?

The Project Flood Is Upon Us": Mississippi River Surge Is a 1-in-500 Year Event

The promotional video for "Room for the River" (english) or "ruimte voor de rivier" (dutch) is worth 3.5 minutes of your time just to see how social marketing for flood-related topics occurs in other parts of the world.  And if you want to see video of the levee being taken down for the Project Flood article from Wall Street Journal "Great Balls of Fire" News Hub.

FPF 3/11/11 - National Flood Safety Awareness Week

National Flood Safety Awareness Week


March 14 - 18, 2011


Flood Safety Awareness Week, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was created to highlight the causes and consequences of flooding and educate communities on how to prepare for and protect their homes and businesses from the devastating effects of flooding.


Please join us in promoting Flood Safety Awareness Week to your customers, community members, colleagues and partners by using the tools and resources listed below from NOAA, FloodSmart, and FEMA:

• Ready.gov/floodawareness: Visit Ready’s Flood Safety Awareness Week landing page to download Flood Safety Awareness Week fact sheets and other important preparedness tips you can share and post to your website.

• FEMA.gov/widgets: A new Flood Safety Awareness Week embeddable widget is now available. We encourage you to include this on your website to promote the week. The FloodSmart seasonal widget is also available to post and share.

• FloodSmart.gov: Visit FloodSmart.gov’s homepage to find important spring preparedness and flood insurance information and outreach tools.

• Blog posts and social media promotion. FEMA will be blogging and spreading the word through their social media tools (Facebook and Twitter) next week. We encourage you to join them in using social media content. Draft posts and tweets are available upon request.

Little Bazile Creek Watershed Floodplain Mapping Begins

Information about the efforts to begin floodplain mapping for Little Bazile Creek Watershed at Bloomfield in Knox County was released by NDNR on November 4, 2010.

http://dnr.ne.gov/NewsReleases/FEMA_LittleBazileCreek.pdf

Information about the mapping effort can be directed to Shuhai Zeng, Head of the Floodplain/Dam Safety/ Survey Division. 402.471.3936.

Two of NeFSMA's Own Heard on the Radio this Week

On May 5th, two NeFSMA members were heard on local radio doling out their descriptions of how the proposed Haymarket Arena in Lincoln would be impacted by the floodplain and floodplain standards.

You can listen to the podcast of Jack and John in the Morning (1400 KLIN) here: http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Browse/playaudio/9364

Very nicely done, Carter and Ben! Flood storage mitigation, no-net fill, flood events, and flood standards, and levees are sometimes difficult concepts to communicate to the general public. Your descriptions were very well articulated and understandable by the early morning commuter traffic.

(Notice: NeFSMA does not provide support for or against the proposed Haymarket Arena.)

Jesse Poore

2010 NeFSMA Chair

NeFSMA 2010 Annual Conference Registration

The Nebraska Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Association is pleased to announce our second annual statewide Floodplain and Stormwater Management Conference. The conference will be Friday July 30, 2010 at the Ramada Conference Center in Kearney, Nebraska. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Kenneth Dewey, Professor of Applied Climate Science at UNL.

You can register on-line

http://dnrdata.dnr.ne.gov/floodplain/ConferenceRegistration/RegistrationForm.aspx

then send your registration fee to:

Nebraska Floodplain & Stormwater
Managers Association
Attn: Lori Laster,Treasurer
8901 S. 154th St.
Omaha, NE 68138

Or print out th form http://www.dnr.state.ne.us/floodplain/Conference_2010/Registration_Flyer.pdf and send it with your payment to Lori.

We have some great seminars lined up this year including:

• Community Guidance: Policies and Ordinances/Forms and Certificates
• Hydrology and Hydraulics for Flood and Stormwater Management and Design
• New EPA Construction Effluent Guidelines
• Post-Construction Integrated Management Practices
• No Adverse Impact Development in the Floodplain
• Levee Decertification and Recertification
• Tips to Present Highly Technical Data to a Non-Technical Audience
• How to Successfully Secure a Hazard Mitigation Grant.

Attendees will earn 6 CFM credits. Lunch is included in the registration fee. Please register by July 16, 2010.

Jesse Poore

2010 NeFSMA Chair

ASFPM Associate Director Position Announcement

Announcement closes June 1, 2010

Go to the ASFPM website for an application form http://www.floods.org/