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City of Gafton, Illinois PROJECT BACKGROUND The City of Grafton is a small tourist-based community of 900 people in west central Illinois. The City is located at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and just north of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers' confluence. The location of the City makes it extremely flood-prone. Flooding on the Mississippi, Illinois, or Missouri Rivers can all affect Grafton. Prior to the Great Flood of 1993, the City had experienced many floods but none to the degree that it experienced in 1993. The 1993 flood inundated almost the entire City for months. In places, flood depths exceeded 15 feet in the city. Four homes floated away down the Mississippi River. Over one hundred homes in Grafton were substantial damaged. The city know for its resiliency to flooding was devastated. MITIGATION MEASURES EMPLOYED The City opted to utilize the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to acquire the substantially damaged structures and end the cycle of flood-rebuild-flood. With matching funds provided by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the City Implemented an acquisition project to acquire 100 properties, many of them located in the floodway of the River. The acquisition project moved relatively quickly and within 2 years the City had acquired and demolished most of the properties. The properties are all dedicated to open space, which provides an unobstructed, scenic view of the River from the Great River Road which runs the length of town. A new subdivision has been constructed on the rolling bluffs above Grafton. Dozens of new homes are under construction. PROJECT BENEFITS The success of the 1993 buyout program was obvious in 1995 when the City again experienced flooding at the 100- year level. In previous years that degree of flooding would have caused extensive damage, but in 1995, the City continued to function as if the flood was non-existent. There was almost no damage to homes and flood insurance claims were drastically reduced. The city did not even get a disaster declaration in 1995. The benefits of an open floodplain are clearly evident in a City that has flooding on an almost annual basis. In fact, since 1993, the City has experienced flooding in 1995, 1996 and 1998, and no significant damage has occurred in any of those events. The benefits of an open floodplain reach other organizations as well. The Red Cross is able to direct its private contributions to other needy sources, and local emergency services agencies can focus on other emergencies in the area. The reuse of the land has been very beneficial to the City. With its strong tourism base, the City is using some of the acquired property to connect a bicycle trail that begins at Pere Marquette State Park, ten miles north of the City, and ends at the City of Alton, fifteen miles to the south. Other buyout sites will be used for public fishing access, parking lots, and city parks. A large new flood resistant marina is proposed along the riverfront. Since the 1993 flood, Grafton has seen a major change and the once sleepy flood damaged city is now a revitalized energetic city. PROJECT COST 4,735,832 FUNDING SOURCE $3,551,874 in HMGP (75%); $1,183,958 in DCCAfunds (25%)