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Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Engaging Residents Affected by the Floods of 2008 and 2016

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Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Engaging Residents Affected by the Floods of 2008 and 2016 Final Report May 2020 Acknowledgements: This community engagement effort for flood resiliency in Vinton, Iowa was completed by Iowa Valley RC&D with funding provided by the Iowa Watershed Approach. This effort was successful because of support from the residents of Vinton, the Iowa Flood Center, The University of Iowa Flood Resilience Program Team, City of Vinton, Benton County Emergency Management, Benton County Disaster Recovery Coalition, JEO Consulting Group, Inc., Benton County Board of Supervisors, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), Iowa State University Extension (Benton County), the Vinton- Shellsburg Community School District, Virginia Gay Hospital, Vinton Public Library, Vinton Unlimited, Benton County Mental Health/ Disability Services, Benton County Service Center, Vinton Municipal Electric Utility, the Middle Cedar River Watershed Coordinator, and local business leaders. Project Funded by: Iowa Watershed Approach U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Rockefeller Foundation Project completed and report co-authored by: Iowa Valley RC&D Executive Director Jessica Rilling University of Iowa Obermann Center for Advanced Studies Humanities for the Public Good Flood Resilience Community Engagement Fellow Paul Schmitt, MA Project and Report Graphic Design by Jessica Reuter Executive Summary Iowa’s small community of Vinton (population 5,093) is located in Benton County and is within the HUC-8 Middle Cedar River Watershed. Vinton has a history of repetitive flooding that has created economic and social hardship. The flood events Vinton experienced in 2008 and 2016 were part of Major Disaster Declaration FEMA-1763-DR and Major Disaster Declaration FEMA-4289-DR. Vinton was selected to be included in the Iowa Watershed Approach’s Flood Resilience Program, which recognizes that social resources are often absent or minimally evident when it comes to flood resiliency. The program strives to improve the use of social resources in watersheds by connecting local partners and stakeholders, enhancing the presence of social resources in watershed planning efforts, and increasing the awareness and communication about established and novel flood resilience initiatives. Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Final Report May 2020 1 The Flood Resilience Program Team collaborated with Iowa Valley Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) to conduct community engagement, facilitate public conversations, and analyze collected stories and information related to flooding, with a focus on low-to-moderate income residents who had been impacted by flooding from the Cedar River. This effort was executed between October 2018 and October 2019, with the majority of engagement taking place in June and July. Iowa Valley RC&D conducted community and key informant interviews, doorstep interviews, phone interviews, website outreach, and held three in- person community conversations. The community conversations included principles and activities adapted from the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) Climate Resilience Framework Training Materials, an internationally recognized and implemented framework funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation. These training materials emphasize a “Shared Learning Dialogue”—iterative group discussions with community agents. The full ISET framework contains three series (Establishing Resilience Principles, Understanding Vulnerability and Risk, and Building Resilience) and 30 activities, and is designed to be carried out over the course of 10-24 months. Iowa Valley RC&D selected six activities from across the three series that were particularly well-suited to the Vinton project timeline and demographic of interest. Iowa Valley RC&D also hosted a Flood Resilience Scenario Game that entailed participants role-playing as a variety of officials and community members in an imagined flooding emergency. Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Final Report May 2020 2 Five themes were identified from the community engagement with Vinton residents: 1 Participants perceived they were not adequately supported by local officials during and after flood events but were also generally unaware of actions that had been or were currently being taken to increase flood resilience for the town 2 Participants identified Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as an agency that did not offer adequate assistance, particularly in regards to understanding and making accessible flood insurance policies and the filing of claims. 3 Community members often drew comparisons between Vinton’s handling of major flood events with that of nearby metros of Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. The comparisons resulted in dissatisfaction with their own city’s initiatives. 4 Participants were proud of their personal resilience and the informal support networks to which they belonged before, during, and after flood events. 5 Perspectives were missing, including the former homeowners from the 29 homes that were destroyed in 2008, past tenants from several rental properties who relocated immediately following each flood event, and young families who moved to Vinton after major flood events and were either unaware of or knowingly taking the risk of living in the floodplain. Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Final Report May 2020 3 Community Flood Resilience: The ability of people living in a common watershed to plan and act collectively, using local capacities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a flood. Several concerns and questions for further research were identified: How can research consider individuals and families who had already been forced by flooding to relocate and were thus unable to participate in these efforts? What considerations should be made for financial and legal literacy barriers associated with applying and making claims for flood insurance? What opportunities exist for local and regional governance to make flood resilience more equitable? How can community support increase for local infrastructure updates alongside their relationship to past flood events? What is the role of non-governmental organizations in fostering flood resiliency? Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Final Report May 2020 4 Insights from participating community members, agencies, and partners varied based on their personal experience. The following insights were commonly agreed upon by all. There is a general lack of The information gathered for this understanding about several issues project should be leveraged and used related to flooding, including but not to benefit Vinton and its residents. limited to the following. The current location of the Vinton • How watershed and subwatershed Municipal Electric Utility, Vinton Fire boundaries influence flooding Department, and Benton Emergency Management are vulnerable to • What stormwater management is flooding. The electric plant would and how it impacts flooding be particularly difficult and costly to relocate. • The negative or positive impacts public and private infrastructure Both residents and community policy, planning and zoning can leaders would benefit from a better have and how those impacts can be understanding of the existing mitigated community stormwater infrastructure and impacts of new developments. • How social and physical preparedness can improve Additional personnel are needed to resiliency. help residents with paperwork and governmental bureaucracy regarding Role-playing as a different community flood insurance, infrastructure, and member during the Flood Resilience recovery efforts. Scenario Game aided in better understanding the difficult decisions The 501c3 nonprofit Benton County and compromises that sometimes Disaster Recovery Coalition is an entity need to be made in emergency that has value during times of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. and during times of preparedness. Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Final Report May 2020 5 Community Characteristics Watershed The community of Vinton, Iowa is located within the Middle Cedar Watershed (MCW), which spans 1.5 million acres (2,400 square miles). Dynamics It is located in East Central Iowa and encompasses all or portions of 10 counties, 48 cities, and 10 Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The size of MCW classifies it as a HUC-8 (HUC stands for Hydrologic Unit Code). The MCW is composed of 68 smaller subwatersheds that are classified as HUC-12 subwatersheds. According to Iowa NRCS’s Rapid Watershed Assessment for the Middle Cedar Watershed, the land use in the MCW is dominated by agriculture (73%). However, urban land use covers 11.6% of the watershed and includes the major metro areas of Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, as well as smaller rural communities like Grundy Center, Reinbeck, La Porte City, Center Point, and Fairfax. Almost 10% of the watershed is in pasture or hayland and 4.6% is covered by woodland or natural areas, including natural areas near Vinton. Water and wetlands cover 0.8%. Community Flood Resilience in Vinton: Final Report May 2020 6 Vinton is located at a halfway point on the Cedar River between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, with Waterloo upstream and Cedar Rapids downstream. The Cedar River flows from the northwest meandering in large winding curves along the northern edge of the town before exiting toward the east. Commercial, business, residential, and governmental service areas of Vinton have been developed along the southern side of the river;
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