Kristin Knight of Brown and Caldwell led a seminar, "Blueprint Columbus: A Toolkit for Community Outreach and Engagement to Support Integrated Planning for Stormwater and Wastewater," on June 9 at the American Water Works Association's Annual Conference and Exposition, held at Anaheim Convention Center. Photo: Larry Shield

This past winter the East Coast had record snow falls in some areas and has dealt with flooding and managing stormwater. Experts at the American Water Works Association's Annual Conference and Exposition shared their findings about these two topics last week. The conference was held at Anaheim Convention Center.

"A Climate of Change is Floor Risk Management," was led by Darrin Punchard of Hawksley Consulting. He deals with flood risk problems, federal responses and local solutions.

"We all live in a flood hazard area," said Punchard. "It's not just natural flood occurrences, but dealing with man."

The nation deals with a cost of $10 billion annually with floods, said Punchard. Flooding accounts for 85 percent of the federal disaster regulations in the U.S. A recent study showed that by 2100 the special flood hazardous areas will increase by 40 percent.

According to Punchard the Community Rating System is a voluntary program that recognizes and rewards community flood plain management that exceeds standards. Nearly 1,300 counties have participated, nationwide.

"We need to monitor, measure, report and repeat," said Punchard. "Charlotte, (N.C.) looked at FEMA flood maps. They developed two flood plans and new maps showed future flood plains. We need to develop and implement a plan for the future and provide maps that better illustrate and communicate risk."

Another community that has dealt with flooding issues was Estes Park, Colo., which two years ago had 17 inches of rain in four days, a once in a 1,500 years storm. HDR Engineering's Sarah Craig dealt with the topic in her seminar, "A Flood of Stakeholders"?uInfrastructure Repair Following an Extreme Storm."

"Colorado is not known as a state with a lot of natural disasters," said Craig. "But this rain event impacted 17 counties, 13 of which were declared as national disasters. There was lots of roadway damage and chaos during the event."

The city of Estes Park had no water, no sewer, no roadway access and limited electricity, said Craig. The area also had to deal with high wind gusts.

According to Craig, in Phase I FEMA funded permanent repairs of the utilities. In Phase II both FEMA and FHWA funded repair of trails and roads, which should be completed next month. For this disaster FEMA covered 75 percent of the cost, with the remaining one-fourth covered equally between utilities and the state of Colorado.

"Global image satellites data base was key in response to the issues," said Craig. "Anyone can experience a natural disaster. You need to consider an emergency response plan and set aside funds for a rainy day.