I was always a person growing up that would be for a flood wall, much like our neighbors, to control the flooding that seems to be an annual spike in the blood pressure of public works and the media. As I get older, I see the benefit of not having that to look at all the time, and being able to see the river, despite its murky appearance. I think today was one of the best things I’ve heard in awhile, about using an alternative to sand bags. My back began hurting just watching the news with people, including some firefighters, filling sand bags downtown. Ickes, despite my being a little on the fence about her writing after the Trice shooting, wrote a good article about some floodwall technology that may be helpful. Of course, this was all vague, so off to Google I went.
I noticed there are several solutions that seem to be possible replacements for our sand bagging technology that is currently in use. Of course, I am taking this with a grain of salt, as most of the websites seem to be marketing tools which are often sugar-coated. Of the several things I saw, it seemed that one of them had some pretty in depth information, as well as studies by the Corps of Engineers in 1997. The Aqua Levee seemed to be a pretty simple solution to the problem, and comes in cheaper to buy than to be putting out sand bags. There were a couple other solutions I noticed, the Aqua Dam and the Aqua Barrier, all of which operate under the same concept. All of them are water filled devices that hold the water back. The Aqua Levee seemed to be superior to me because it has a plastic outer shell that can absorb impacts from debris, as opposed to the other devices’ unprotected water filled bladders.
I am unsure that the concern Dee has about water flow was that big of an issue, as all of the sites seem to be more concerned with depth. All of the devices come with anchoring options as well, so it would be interesting to look at some of the other data surrounding these. I am a little dismayed that we didn’t look at something like this in the past. The article seems to note that Dee pointed these items out in the past and attempted to purchase them, with little to no backing of the council to get it done. I am all for saving tax dollars, and I think this is a good idea. I think even if we have to replace these items on an occasional basis, it would still be cheaper overall than building a permanent levee.
Aqua Levee Engineering Document
Aqua Levee Video (They actually stop a river from flowing)
Aqua Dam Information
Aqua Barrier Information
QCT 4-28-08 Technology May Replace Sand Bags
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7 comments:
Yourreally stupiddecision craigwasto tear up the areaaround the skatepark. Youshould peronally pay for the costsofthis.
Keith, go away!
You don't know what you are talking about.
tebaifzAnd sober up before you post again. It's hard to understand your typing.
I think the first poster is an example of why we need the Davenport Promise.
Keith is a festering boil that won't go away . . .
Keith 9:01 AM"
Your comments are much more lucid at 4:00 am, before you hit the sauce.
The next flood is coming. Just like the next sunrise, full moon and bad TV sitcom, the next flood is always coming, unless it already here. There is simply no way to avoid the that fact. If you live in an area that has flooded before it IS going to flood again. Beyond that, based on recent events and predictions of global warming the expectations for the next flood grows higher every day. You’ve seen the expanding flood plain maps being re-drawn by multiple engineering firms under contract to FEMA. From these it’s clear what the “experts” see for the future. There are two graphs that point out the seriousness of the situation. In the first the number, of reported US flood events, has increased in frequency by an order of 12 times from 1950 to 2000.
In this second graph shows the economic impact of those floods for the period 1900 through 2000.
With an average annual loss of over $6 billion through 2004 the trend in both cases is clear. Expect more floods and higher losses well into the future.
FLOODS ARE INEVITABLE – FLOOD DAMAGE IS NOT
In the past the inevitability of flooding, and the damage it brings was something we all just had to live with. The obvious conclusion from the reality these graphs depict is that this cannot be our attitude or operating philosophy any longer. The cost of inaction is too high and the constant increase in insurance payouts is unsustainable.
Many communities, to their credit, have started to take real steps to reduce the losses. They have requested help from organizations and experts such as FEMA and the USACE to develop long range plans for flood protection. These plans require surveys (new flood plain maps), analysis of the data, design of a solution, engineering, and eventual construction. Each stage takes time and the more difficult component, money. Funding, becomes the limiting factor at each stage of the project and time becomes the enemy, because always, the next flood is coming. Most of the projects take a decade or more to complete. That’s another 10 years, at least, of flood damage, and disaster clean-up for every community that has flooding issues.
Because, for the thousands of years of human civilization, we have had floods and flood damage we consider that damage inevitable. We have viewed the damage as inevitable as the flood it self. However, maybe for the first time in history, we now have ways to erect barriers to protect us from that damage, on an emergency basis.
WHY NOT JUST MOVE?
We could, of course, all just move to high ground, get away from those areas that flood and we wouldn’t have the damage to worry about. This sounds good, but with a roughly 70% of the worlds population living in areas that are coastal or flood threatened, our options for making this kind of wholesale move just aren’t practical. The amount of capital and infrastructure development already in place makes moving to higher ground beyond our means. Add that to the visceral desire that humans have for being in close proximity to water and moving to avoid flooding becomes even more unlikely.
As a culture, we found that fire was a serious danger to homes and commercial property. So we invented and developed things like, fire departments, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems. We did that because we understood the costs involved in not doing it and because we could. They proved so effective that they have now been written into local laws, local ordinances, engineering and architectural design standards. They are considered absolute necessities for any modern structure. We put vaults in banks and carry umbrellas even when it isn’t raining because we believe that being ready for what is sure to come eventually makes more sense than just hoping it doesn’t happen.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
With regard to flooding and flood damage, however, there has never been a way to provide reliable emergency protection. Of course, we could endeavor to build sandbag dikes, earthen barriers or use material like plywood, plastic sheeting and other unsuitable stuff. People, in need, have and will, use whatever they can find to try and protect valuable and threatened property when the flood is underway. It is a historical fact that in an unacceptably high percentage of cases those efforts were expensive, time consuming and produced results with little or no positive effect. In fact these means are so expensive, time consuming and ineffective that most people simply abandon the flooded areas and hope the damage isn’t too bad. Hope becomes the single most often used strategy for flood damage mitigation.
Permanent barriers are aesthetically unappealing. They restrict access and vistas that are the key attributes we find most valuable in many coastal, river, stream, lake and other waterside resort and recreational areas. For hundreds of weeks in a row we love the water and then for a few days the water rises and during those times we need to protect ourselves and our property. In some cases they are the only good options and are essential. However, in the vast majority of cases permanent walls and barricades are not the best option.
One emergency flood barrier system that has solved many of the drawbacks to other similar products is FLOODWALLS. You can learn more about this new innovative emergency flood barrier at www.floodwalls.com.
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