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<br />~ <br /> <br />FLOODPLAmMANAGEMENT <br /> <br />Floodplain management is a <br />decisionmaking process whose goal is to <br />achieve appropriate use of the nation's <br />floodplains. Appropriate use is any <br />activity or set of activities compatible <br />with the risk to natural resources (natural <br />and beneficial functions of floodplains) <br />and human resources (life and property). <br /> <br />The history of the nation's <br />floodplain activity is as old as the nation <br />itself and is well chronicled in An <br />Assessment Report: Floodplain <br />Management in the United States, <br />prepared in 1992 for the Federal <br />Interagency Floodplain Management <br />Task Force <br /> <br />GOOD NEWS <br /> <br />Although the flood of 1993 ultimately caused major <br />damages throughout the upper Mississippi River Basin, <br />many elements of structural and nonstructuralflood <br />damage reduction systems put in place by federal, state, <br />and local governments over the years did work ai1d <br />prevented, billions of dollars in damages. <br /> <br />During the flood the outreach from all over the country <br />and the world to those suffering the effects of the <br />flooding was most impressive. Thousands filled and <br />stacked sandbags to hold weakening levees; others <br />worked day after day to help clean the homes and <br />businesses of people they had never met. Dry <br />communities adopted those in need. Contributions to <br />assist flood victims poured in from people <br />in many nations. Federal, state, and local disaster <br />teams worked around the clock, month after month, to <br /> <br />nr <br />il <br />1) <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />mitigate damages and suffering, Those who were <br />recipients of this assistance will never forget this <br />demonstration of true caring. While the Review <br />Committee repon will not address all of these <br />successes, they should not be forgotten. <br /> <br />SHARING THE CHALLENGE <br /> <br />Today the nation faces three major problems in <br />floodplain management: <br /> <br />. As the Midwest Flood of 1993 has shown, people <br />and property remain at risk, not only in the floodplains <br />of the upper Mississippi River Basin but also throughout <br />the nation. Many of those at risk neither fully <br />understand the nature and the potential consequences of <br />that risk nor share fully in the fiscal implications of <br />bearing that risk. Over the last thiny years, average <br />annual riverine flood damages have exceeded $2 billion. <br />Over the last ten, they bave been over $3 billion. <br />Between 1988 and 1992, the Federal Emergency <br />Management Agency has expended nearly $200 million <br />each year in flood recovery activities. I <br /> <br />. Only in recent years has the nation come to <br />appreciate fully the significance of the fragile <br />ecosystems of the upper Mississippi River Basin. <br />Given the tremendous loss of habitat over the ~ two <br />centuries, many suggest that we now face severe <br />ecological consequences. <br /> <br />A lot of great things have been <br />done tlW preyerzted damages and <br />mitigated the damages that did <br />occur... we can't lose sight of this. <br /> <br />Terry Brandstad <br />Governor of Iowa <br />February 16, 1994 <br /> <br />xxi <br />