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American Morning

FEMA Director to Visit Davenport, Iowa

Aired April 26, 2001 - 09:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: As mentioned, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency will get a firsthand look at flood damage in Davenport, Iowa today. And he is likely to get some feedback on his criticism of the city.

Earlier this week, FEMA director Joe Allbaugh angered the mayor and some residents there when he chided the city of Davenport for not building a permanent floodwall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ALLBAUGH, FEMA DIRECTOR: The question is, how many times will the American taxpayer have to step in and take care of this flooding, which could be easily prevented by building levees and dikes?

MAYOR PHIL YERINGTON, DAVENPORT, IOWA: When no other part of the country is punished for natural disasters, that is time to stand up and say, let's sit down and work this out, but don't make it look like we don't pay any dollars anywhere -- we just sit here in the Midwest, we flood every three years and we stand here with our hands up -- because that's not what's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUFFER: Well, Mayor Phil Yerinton was kind enough to join us live this morning from Davenport.

And Mayor Yerington, good morning, thanks for being with us.

YERINGTON: Good morning, Linda. My pleasure.

STOUFFER: What will you be saying to the FEMA director today when you actually get a chance to talk to him face-to-face after his comments?

YERINGTON: Well, actually I spoke to him on the phone yesterday and we're looking forward to his visit.

We want him to see that it's not as simple as building a floodwall, because we have a lot of water that backs up through our sewer system. We have a lot of groundwater that seeps up because of pressure of the river. And we don't know for sure that a floodwall would be the wisest use of tax dollars, both federal and state, if we would try to perform some kind of flood prevention that would not work.

STOUFFER: But what about his point about the money -- whether it's used for a floodwall or something else -- that every time there is a big flood, it's going to cost the federal government big? I know, in 1993, federal aid to the region there was about $1.2 billion. That's a lot of money.

YERINGTON: That's a lot of money, but I think that we have to realize we have the third-largest river in America running right -- or in the world -- running right down through America. And a lot of people live along that river. And when you live on a river, it's going to flood. Seawalls and floodwalls upriver from us are what have caused the damage that we have here.

Across America, down the river, we're channeling this river into such a fast-moving, shallow amount of water that by the time it gets here, it comes up over the banks and we deal with it in our city streets.

STOUFFER: Mr. Yerington, what about the perception point, though? I'm sure there are a lot of taxpayers who've been hearing the FEMA director this week who think, "Yes, why should I pay for that? Why should I pay for the city to have these beautiful jazz festivals and live near the water when I'm going to have to bail them out when the going gets tough?"

YERINGTON: Well, what we're asking people is to realize this kind of things goes on all over America, not just with the floods, but with earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes -- and that we don't mind if our money goes there on the repeated times that these natural disasters happen.

We've taken a lot of measures here to move people out of the floodplain. We have acquired 52 properties that are flood-prone and have turned them into grassland. We have built some of our new downtown buildings up -- they're dry this time. They're not underwater, they're not pumping water because of where they're at. We've taken some measures -- we just have to make sure that what we do, first of all, is effective for us and second of all, it doesn't hurt our neighbors downstream.

STOUFFER: So what do you see as the most effective measures you've taken so far? You mentioned some of them. What gives you reason for hope that you all can do it?

YERINGTON: What we've done this time is we've done our homework. We learned from the floods of '93 and '97. We have set sandbags and clay dikes to a level of 23 feet, which the river did not reach. Our downtown is not dry, but a lot of what you see behind me is the federal -- I'm sorry -- the U.S. Highway 61 and 67 and then about 20 acres of grassland. So when you look out over my shoulder -- that's grass and parking lot that's underwater. Some of the businesses will have to bail out their basements, but so far we've done very, very good this time around.

STOUFFER: Well, when you speak with these federal officials today, will you ask them to press President Bush for a federal disaster declaration to free up the federal money for folks there in Davenport?

YERINGTON: Well, of course we do. And we want to also remind the country that we will not be asking for the amount of money that we had in '93 and in '97, because we've taken measures this time and since then, and we've done a lot since 1984. In fact, we turned the floodwall down in 1984 because the cost to build it was just slightly greater than the value of the land that it would have protected. And that's not a wise use of tax dollars.

STOUFFER: In the segment we had just before you, we saw a homeowner in Pleasant Valley, who actually built his own floodwall. He talked about what a wonderful thing a water vacuum is at moments like this. Do you think homeowners there in Davenport will take the federal money themselves, or are people really starting to look at individual solutions that don't involve the federal government?

YERINGTON: A lot of those people who are second and third and fourth-generation people who live along the river are being very innovative, like the man is in Pleasant Valley. A lot of these people have built their houses up. They have sandbagged themselves. They have set some pumps up way ahead of time to get the water out of their houses.

And the people out here are fighting the river, they're fighting for their homes. They don't just abandon their homes and then expect the federal government and the American taxpayer to rebuild them for them.

STOUFFER: Mayor Phillip Yerington, we appreciate you being with us today, and good luck -- I know you've got a lot to deal with out there. I'm glad things aren't as bad as they could have been. Thank you.

YERINGTON: Thank you very much.

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