Flood Prevention and Lessons Learned on Cedar Rapids Lowa Flood - Essay Example

Flood Prevention and Lessons Learned (Cedar Rapids Lowa Flood of 2008) Rivers in Des Moines, Cedar and Iowa River Basins,including their tributaries busted due to the floods, in what people initially called the historical Midwest flood of 2008. The experience of the floods came in the dynamic winter season where people experienced ice accumulation and abundant snowfall through this time of the year. During this period of the year, abnormal temperatures, which were very low and abnormal precipitation, played as a major contributor in the occurrence of the record –breaking flooding in the months of May and June 2008 (Sanders, 49). The floods which were experienced in 2008 in the city of Iowa caused massive damage, farmlands were destroyed businesses were demolished all major social amenities were almost taken to ground and thousands of people who were living in Iowa were left homeless. Millions of dollars’ worth of property was destroyed and lead to the lives being lost and livelihoods being shattered. Floods were later to be categorized as the Fifth major disaster that has ever occurred in the United States and the first in the city of Iowa (Nazoom, 58). When it comes to comparison and categorizing, it takes one back to the flood stories. While giving a comparison between the two floods stories namely the Old Testament and Gilgamesh epic, one gets a great an impression that there are similar occurrences. For some scholars, the similar elements between the two flood stories become perplexing. There are possible things with the two accounts shown by Alexander Heidel. These possibilities are that the Hebrew story came first then the Babylonian story followed thus copied from the previous. The Hebrew story could therefore have borrowed the ideas from the Babylonians and both stories descended from the common original story of Noah. Since many people are conversant with the original story in the Old Testament, they forget to research on how the genesis story resembles the flood story of Gilgamesh (Sanders, 2003). The two stories are so alike with the main theme of forgiveness being the domineering similarity between the two. The two stories however differ in the events that took place during the floods, which for many seem to be the small details. In the two flood stories, the numbers of event days differ regardless of the basic events taking place in very different ages. Focusing on the flood stories for a minute, It is before 2000 B.C that Gilgamesh flood story got the first publishing while the Old Testament story was in 400 B.C, which came much later than the Gilgamesh flood (Sanders, 2003). In both stories, God or gods gets annoyed and the Old Testament clearly shows how those who did not follow the correct ways he wanted them to follow annoyed God. The other difference is that there are worshiped gods or God as well as heroes like Noah during this period. When the Gilgamesh story takes place, gods allow existence of half-god and half-human on earth. The other similarity is the number of people saved and the reasons behind the saving after the floods. Having looked at both stories carefully, there is a good man like Noah in the Old Testament and Utnapishtim from Gilgamesh, saved and chosen by either God or gods (Nazoomi, 2005). In the two stories, both men choose to send birds to find the dry land. Both Noah and Utnapishtim are rewarded because they show proper reverence to their gods. Years after the floods in Cedar Rapids took place, the people and the leadership of that area is still trying to recover from the damage that the floods caused their suffering. Different policies have been developed since of which some have been accepted and others criticized or rejected. The United States Government offered the City of Cedar Rapids 2 million Dollars to help them after the devastations, but what was actually incurred by the floods was 5Million dollars worth of damages. What it actually meant was that the remaining amount in which the Government did not provide, the people of Cedar Rapids had to find methods to raise the money and find mechanisms to prevent and control such occurrence. The people of Cedar Rapids new action had to taken and had to be taken fast. So the first thing they did to do was developing a plan to restore the city, due to the damages which had been caused by the floods and also develop a plan for preventative purposes incase such an incident occurred, and the probability of such event occurring in the future was high. One of the policies that was proposed, was a taxation that was to be adopted on an extension of the city’s and county’s local sales tax which had already existed. In adopting this policy, the county and the city will increase their revenue to deal with the unplanned disaster that had occurred. This policy that had been proposed would generate 200 Million to also help in a system that would protect them on projects at the city and the county. This money was enough to pay for the flood protection system on Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids at both sides. When this proposal was brought before Congress for legislation, whereby the policy was to be voted on before the house (Bloom, 109). This proposal was rejected by the legislators, they so it as a burden which would bring more suffering to the people of Cedar Rapids after the catastrophe. To deal with such an expensive catastrophe, like the floods in Iowa, Money has to be spent; a lot of funding should be focused on the preventative aspect of the disaster. When the legislators rejected the proposal in 2008 on the 1% local option sales, it created a major milestone in rebuilding Cedar Rapids. This rejection raises a lot of questions on the commitment of the citizens of towards the floods and whether the people of cedar rapids have learned anything from the previous encounters with flood. Despite the tax rejection by the legislators people in Iowa have made great strides in rebuilding their town .People have united in every form in trying to make sure that their town is restored in the previous manner that it was before the tragedy occurred. It has been 4 years since the disaster occurred and already visible changes can be seen in Iowa, Citizens with the help of the federal Government officials have contributed to these successful changes. The opening of the Czech and Slovak Museum was major achievement in restoring the City’s image and boosting the economic situation in the area (Miller, 63). The officials of Iowa were able to raise 25 million dollars, which was done within 19 Months this was done by people all over the world. In the process of restoring the museums many challenges were encountered, this is because the museum was located on the Cedar River. The Cedar River was one of the rivers that caused the floods and destructions, so mechanisms had to be developed to avoid occurrence o f the same in the future. Museums are national heritages they give a sense of belonging in a region, they help people know where they came from so that they can relate what happened in the past and what is happening now. This helps people not repeat mistakes that were committed in the past. So restoring the museums was a very wise decision by the disaster recovery committee. The Museum now has thousands of people who visit there which in turn generate revenue in the region therefore improving the economic status of the County (Miller, 59). In planning of the recovery and prevention policies, some of the policies and methods of restoring the city that were given by the federal Emergency Management Agency were of controversial in nature . Some of the policies given by the committee members were rejected. Like for instance plans for Cedar Rapids recreation center in Time check, which was destroyed during the floods, was rejected by FEMA, this was because there had already existed a rule that stated that cities had to build their own facilities. Based on hurricane Sandy it is important that aspiring leaders be charismatic regarding what would be involved regarding reasonable responsive recovery process. Predominantly during the speech, I had to impress upon the voters to make the choice of voting him into mayoral seat for the city of Tampa. This position demands a strong personality and a man of his word. Many as very convincing and passionate saw the delivery of the vision that I used during this event (Miller, 45). I had to impress upon the residents of the city’s primary goals. This includes what it was going to do in order to maintain a reputable character of the city. I also had to ascertain the residents that I was going to uphold what the city stands for, while maintaining a constant or accelerated rate of development in the city (Hart, 450). Politicians should be sure to interact with persons who do not have their best interests at heart. They are prone to journalists and other people sent to torment them and make them as uncomfortable as possible in an effort to make their talks fail. Leadership had a few of these backbenchers who were simply there to witness him fail. There are, as in all cities, certain ‘hot topics’ that revolve around the political world. A leader should know how to handle these occurrences as they are inevitably bound to happen (Cox, 98). The lessons learnt include the importance of Discernment, which is to intentionally retain control of a dialogue and selectively deal with matters that favor someone. Certain controversies surround the city and it was the audience’s intention to corner me into choosing a side, but it was evident that I did not want to be in the middle of the tussle since whatever stand I chose since it would have been detrimental to his campaigns. I would closely go around the question, not really giving an answer but conclusively answering the questions. Works cited Cox, Line. A Presidency Upstaged: The Public Leadership of George H.W. Bush. Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2011. Hart, Uhr. Public Leadership: Perspectives and Practices. Atlanta: ANU E Press, 2008. Nazoomi, Orm. Noah and the Flood Genesis. Illinois:  Scott, Foresman and Company, 2005. Sanders, Nil.  "The Story of the Flood" The Epic of Gilgamesh. Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 2003. McWilliams, John. New England's crises and cultural memory: literature, politics, history, religion, 1620-1860. New York: University Press, 2004, 183. Miller, Arthur & Abbotson, Susan. The Crucible. New York: A&C Black, 2010. Miller, Arthur & Bloom, Harold. The Crucible. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2010, 109 pages. Read More