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<br /> <br />7il1sa, Oklahoma <br /> <br />-- - -- - - - <br /> <br />SUCCESS STORIES <br /> <br />"Commissioner!" Through phone static, he recognized the voice of the mayor. "I need you to come <br /> <br /> <br />to the emergency operations center right away. I'll send a truck to get you. It's flooding." <br /> <br />"No!" said the commissioner. "Where?" <br /> <br />"EverY""here. " <br /> <br />Thus began Tulsa's worst natural disaster, our 1984 flood. <br /> <br /> <br />City leaders huddled in the Emergency Operations Center throughout the nightmare night, shell- <br /> <br /> <br />shocked by volley after volley of horrifying reports of destruction all across town. They mustered all <br /> <br /> <br />available forces to battle the flood. There were miraculous victories, such as in Holiday Mobile Home <br /> <br /> <br />Park, where a life flight helicopter pilot braved the storm to rescue 40 people; they were plucked <br /> <br /> <br />from their roofs, one by one, by an outstretched hand of the chopper nurse. Overall, our forces were <br /> <br /> <br />puny by comparison to the overwhelming power of the water reclaiming its floodplains. <br /> <br /> <br />Before dawn, as much as 15 inches of rain had fallen. Fourteen Tulsans had lost their lives in flashing <br /> <br /> <br />waves of water. Another 288 were hurt. Nearly 7,000 homes and businesses were ruined, and another <br /> <br /> <br />7,000 cars and trucks - including city fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances - were destroyed. <br /> <br /> <br />Damage was $183 million. <br /> <br /> <br />During that terrible night, the commissioner and our new young mayor vowed to do whatever <br /> <br /> <br />they could - and the political cost be damned - to prevent Tulsa from suffering such a flood again. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br /> <br />That commitment produced Tulsa's comprehensive stormwater <br />management program - a program born of great loss, hard lessons, <br />and tremendous political courage. <br />BACKGROUND Floods have haunted Tulsa's history. Tulsa <br />was bullt over the past hundred years on the banks of the Arkansas <br />River, on rolling terrain networked with floodplains. The city, now encompassing 200 square miles and <br />380,000 citizens, lies within the infamous "tornado alley," where colliding weather systems often pro- <br />duce spectacular thunderstorms, most treacherous in the spring and fall. As we grew, lowland develop- <br />ment was ripe for flooding that seemed worse every year. <br /> <br /> <br />By the 1980s, Tulsa County had garnered the worst flood record in the United States, nine federal flood <br />disaster declarations in 15 years. Real estate markets were virtually dead in sprawling sectors of our com- <br />munity; and we were gaining a reputation as the nation's flood capital, thwarting economic development. <br />The city's record was transformed from "worst to best" after that flash flood on Memorial Day 1984. <br />The program actually began in the 1970s, when Tulsa entered the National Flood Insurance Program <br />(NFIP), but local political opposition stunted implementation. After the '84 flood, leaders were able to <br />muster community-wide consensus that continues today. Since 1993, our citizens have enjoyed the lowest <br />flood insurance rates in the U.S. because the federal government's community rating system has ranked <br />our program first in the nation. <br /> <br />Success Stories 6 <br />