FLOOD03237

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Out of Harm's Way The Missouri Buyout Program
• Date: 1/8/1996
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: State Emergency Management Agency
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Mitigation/Flood Warning/Watershed Restoration

XI. Lessons for the Future

"One who knows the Mississippi will promptly aver - not aloud but to himself-that ten thousand River Commis.
sions, with the minds of the world at their back. cannot tame that lawless stream, cannot curb it or confine it,
cannot say to it, 'Go here, ' or 'Go there, ' and make it obey; cannot save a shore which it has sentenced; cannot bar
its path with an obstruction which it will not tear down, dance over, and laugh at. ..
.Mark Twain,
Life on the Mississippi

"By reducing the potential for future flood damage, we ensure that many thousands offamilies will never again

have to experience the kind of human tragedy that we witnessed in 1993. ..
.James L. Witt

Disasters can be persuasive
teachers. We learn what we've done
right and what we've done wrong.
Once something has been tested
under real circumstances, its value is
truly evident.
The Missouri buyout program
worked. Its theories were put to the
test in May of 1995 and found to be
the just the beginning of cost-
savings which will be evident every
time the rains come.
The $60 million ($30 million
Hazard Mitigation 404 and $30
million CDBG) allocated for the
buyout program has already proven
to be cost effective in the 1995
Flood. Buying out properties in the
river's path effectively reduces
emergency response costs, Public
Assistance and Individual Family
Grant dollars and most importantly
the mental anguish of the 1993 flood
victims who opted to participate in
the Buyout.
As the waters were rising in '95,
communities reported that additional
floodplain residents expressed
interest in the buyout program
although no additional funds were
immediately available.
Based on the Missouri experience,
continued funding of this program
will go a long way toward accom-
plishing the public policy objectives
ofreducing future flood risks.
The State of Missouri is pleased
to see that FEMA has established a
National Mitigation Goal and
proposed a series of objectives

which establish mitigation as a
priority for federal, state and local
governments. Among the effort's
first year accomplishments, FEMA
details the following:

. continued outreach to communities
affected by floods regarding oppor-
tunities to participate in acquisition
projects.

. coordination of key federal agency
programs (FEMA, HUD, SBA and
EDA)

. and documentation of accomplish-
ments of the Hazard Mitigation
Grant Program..

This report is Missouri's effort to
outline the successes evident in its
local communities throughout this
state.
As articulated in the FEMA
Mitigation Directorate's First Year
Report, Placing the Cornerstone,
Governor Carnahan applauds the
agency's "departure from previous
flood recovery and reconstruction
efforts, which in the past have
focused on the repair and rebuilding
of levees and structural flood control
measures. By utilizing this ap-
proach, FEMA intends to perma-
nently remove the potential for
future flood losses or injury."
In keeping with its role as a
partner with the federal government
in this effort, Missouri offers the
following recommendations based

on its successful experience with the
buyout program. Many of these
reiterate positions taken in the
, Galloway report.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Establish a programmatic buyout
and hazard mitigation program with
funding authorities independent of
disaster declarations.
Programs for ongoing buyout and
mitigation activities are critical to
the public policy objective of
clearing the floodplain. Congress
should explore new sources of
ongoing mitigation funds. New
funds available through NFIP and
through recent changes to Section
404 are the types of vehicles for
hazard mitigation which will be very
helpful to local communities in
addressing the problem.
Maintain flexibility in hazard
mitigation programs to promote
cost-effective and appropriate
mitigation techniques, including the
option of states receiving funds as a
block grant.
As the Galloway report states,
"Buyouts are the optimal solution
for many neighborhoods impacted
by the Midwest flood." Allowing
the control and decision-making to
take place on the local and state
levels is the cornerstone of a suc-
cessful program. If states are to be
given an expanded role in floodplain
management and hazard mitigation,
a block grant approach gives them