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From Sandbags to Sanity:
The Policy Implications of the Midwest Floods of 2008
April 20, 2009
The Monona Terrace
Madison, WI
Legislators, state agencies, local government, emergency government officials, floodplain managers, developers, homeowners and others will want to attend this free daylong symposium that will explore answers to these questions:
- What are the policy lessons to be learned?
- Are these the same lessons that were proposed in the aftermath of the 1993 Midwest floods?
- If so, why were the 2008 floods so bad?
- What are the barriers to implementation?
- What factors led to the location of property in risky locations?
- How can such risk be mitigated?
- What are the public health risks associated with flooding?
- What were the broad implications of the 2008 flooding for Wisconsin’s agriculture and the economy?
- How does the lack of investment in public infrastructure interact with flood risk?
- What do we need to know to plan better?
Nationally recognized emergency management scholar Donald Moynihan and the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are organizing this one-day symposium. It will feature two national experts, Gerry Galloway, of the University of Maryland, and Ray Burby, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and more than a dozen Wisconsin researchers and government officials to discuss these issues. Hear from representatives from Gov. Jim Doyle’s Wisconsin Recovery Task Force and the Wisconsin Legislative Council’s Special Committee on Emergency Management & Continuity of Government, including Sen. Robert Jauch and Rep. Joan Ballweg.
When record floods swept through the Midwest in the summer of 2008, some local government officials put out a call for extra sandbags as their primary response. Others dusted off incomplete and out-of-date floodplain maps or tried to reinstate municipal flood insurance that had expired. As the waters receded, it became clear that localities varied widely in their crisis preparation, response, and recovery practices.
State agencies and legislators want to change that. They have turned to the University of Wisconsin System, looking for help and information on everything from hydrology to climate change and intergovernmental collaboration. Organized as part of a partnership with Wisconsin Emergency Management, the Wisconsin Recovery Task Force, the Special Committee on Emergency Management, the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Association of State Floodplain Managers, this April 20 symposium will serve as a forum where members of the academic community and emergency management professionals will combine their expertise and experience to address the needs of policy-makers and practitioners.
The symposium, which will be 8:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., is free and open to the public, but registration is required and limited to 150. To register, call Bridget Pirsch at 608-265-2658 or email her names and affiliations at . The deadline is Wednesday, April 15. The symposium will use WisconsinEye, a non-profit public affairs cable network that provides audiences with access to unedited coverage of state proceedings via both television and the internet, to make the presentations and panels available over the Internet for those unable to attend or who want to review what they learned later, on their own time.
The symposium is sponsored by the UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Water Resources Institute and the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy, with additional support from the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment.
For more information on the symposium, contact Terry Shelton, 608-262-3038 or .