Rivers Wash Away Iowa but Not the Resolve of Iowans
Kids experience all kinds of new things during college. But how many students can say they’ve lived through a flood the National Weather Service says happens once every 500 years?
Some of the coeds at the University of Iowa can now say so. The President of the University, located in Iowa City, Iowa has called this historic flooding the greatest threat in the 161 year history of the University.
The Iowa River, which crested at 31.5 feet over the weekend damaged 16 buildings on campus, some with 8 feet of water inside.
“It’s really hard to see this,” Reginia Bailey told me. Bailey is the mayor of this beautiful, progressive city, where the Iowa River customarily runs through it in picturesque fashion. Not anymore. “We saw this 15 years ago. It’s hard to see it again.”
One of the misconceptions about this bout of flooding is that when you hear a river has crested, or hit its high water mark, it doesn’t mean the water is quickly going away. In the case of Iowa City, Mayor Bailey says it could be another 7 to 10 days before the Iowa River drops to a level below the river’s previous high mark, which was set during the then-record flood of 1993. Meantime, many cities along the Mississippi River in southeastern Iowa are expecting to see record crests of the Mississippi later this week.
The ubiquity of water in Iowa is expected to cost the state billions of dollars. Lives have been lost. Buildings have been ruined, but the resolve of so many in Iowa remains strong, such as pastor Jeff Gilmore.
For the last 17 years, Gilmore has been with the Parkview Evangelical Free Church in Iowa City, which has been swallowed by the Iowa River, with water at least 10 feet high surrounding the building. (I know this because there was water in the church’s parking lot right up to the bottom of a basketball rim. And basketball rims are typically 10 feet high). The church is one of the largest in the city with 1800 members.
To say that Gilmore is attached to his church might be an understatement. He’s raised 6 kids in this church and officiated the wedding of his mother and step-father at this church. But his ties appear to transcend material bonds. I asked him whether he is depressed about the fate which has befallen his church. He responded, “”A church is about its people. Not the building.” He went on to say, “The building just houses memories, which are not going away.”
For the foreseeable future, Gilmore’s congregation will be “a mobile church.” He’s holding services at a nearby high school.
This past weekend, his Sunday sermon focused on this historic flood. He called it, “How to Face Trials and Tribulations and Emerge Victorious”
Jeff Goldblatt has been a Chicago-based reporter for FNC since 1999. He reported from the front lines in the Middle East during the battle between Hezbollah and Israel, and his coverage on Hurricane Isabel garnered attention from major news sources … and Jay Leno. 
What a wonderful life experience !
Actually, in 2000, East Carolina University students, myself included, lived through flooding that occured in Greenville, NC after Hurricane Floyd. My hearts go out to the students and residents dealing with this catastrophe. Eastern NC was devastated, and it took a long time to recover.
I was at the University of Hawaii when Manoa stream overflowed it’s banks and the natural damn broke, sending a tidal wave screaming down through campus. It’s a useless lede…. Welcome to Fox News!
500 yr flood means a flood that occurs once every 500 yrs on average.
It is a 500 year flood because the government said there was only 0.2% chance of a flood of this magnitude ever happening/ a once in 500 years flood. But wait, how exactly was this a 500-year flood?
they call it a 599 year flood because that kind of flooding should only happen every 500 years. And Gilmore is a pastor which means he has the ability to join people in marriage. Clearly he himself did not MARRY his mother, he blessed her marriage to another man.
you people need dto hink a little outside the box!
A 500-year flood is a flood at levels considered to be likely to happen once every 500 years. I’m surprised at how many people don’t seem to know this. As for the mockery and questioning of “He’s raised 6 kids in this church and married his mother here”, don’t be so dull. This is not a new phrase and it is clear what is meant by “married his mother”. This article does have shortcomings, but some of these criticisms are just silly. As for the use of the term co-ed, I think the author/editor was merely fishing for another word for students, having used the word in the previous paragraph. There is no evidence in the context of the article to suggest that the author was intending to refer to female students specifically. Perhaps you should open your mind to the idea that the word co-ed has taken on a different connotation from the days of its initial usage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100-year_flood defines a 100 year flood as the level of flood water expected to be equaled or exceeded every 100 years on average.
So a 500 year flood would be the level of flood water expected to be equaled or exceeded every 500 years on average.
A quote from a Chicago Tribune article: “This is our version of Katrina,” said Johnson County Emergency Management spokesman Mike Sullivan. “This is the worst flooding we’ve ever seen.”
Coralville and Iowa City are both in Johnson County.
The author here isn’t using 500-year flood to be sensational. It is merely an accurate description of the situation in Iowa. Nobody alive has seen flooding this bad in that area. Nobody alive should ever expect to see it so bad again.
Thirty seconds of research could have answered for you what millions of Americans already understood.
A 500 year flood refers to to a prediction that such an event will occur every 500 years. There are also other flood levels established. It is commonly used in insurance to set rates. Building a house in 5 year flood zone probably won’t get insured.
I am a civil engineer and I will explain this “500-year flood” phenomena to you…
No, its not a flood that lasts for 500 years. A 500-year flood basically refers to a massive rainfall event that only occurs about once in 500 years. Typically, here in the US, storm drains, drainage systems, dams, levees, etc, are built to accomodate the 100 year flood, or a rain event that occurs about every 100 years. The flood of 1993 was probably considered a “100 year flood”. The rainfall intensities associated with 2-year, 5-year, 10-year… 100-year storm rainfall event are based upon historical data. I hope this explains it a little bit.
A 500 year flood is designated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) as a flood that can be expected to happen once in 500 years. You can also check the FEMA flood map web site to see what flooding might happen in your area. http://www.fema.gov
A 500-year flood means there should only be a flood this bad every 500 years. Which if I remember correctly, the flood of 1993 was a 100 year flood… That’s only 15 years…
for those of you who are confused about what a 500 year flood is. Please see this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_year_flood
This language is the standard way to describe floods.
I’m not even going to explain the “married his mother here” quote. marry has two meanings. Look it up in a dictionary if you need to.
500 year flood is a flood that has the likelihood of occurring once in every 500 years.
There are 100 year floods too – as in 100 year flood plane.
Not much sensational about the name – it is in fact a 500 year flood.
Q: WHAT IS THE “500-YEAR FLOOD”?
A: The 500-year flood, like the 100-year flood is misleading. The 500-year flood is not the flood that will occur every 500 years, instead, it is the flood that has a .2% chance of occurring each year. The 500-year flood, which is the standard used by most Federal and state agencies, is used by the National Flood Insurance Program as the standard for floodplain management and to determine the need for flood insurance.
Flood Hazard Mapping (http://www.fema.gov/mit/tsd/)
So that’s why this is a 500 year flood. The chance of flooding on this level in any given year is .2% or more simply stated 1 in 500.
500 year flood means that the flood is so severe, it is only expected every 500 years or so. I believe the levels are based off historic evidence but there are also future estimates built in. 500 years means another flood of this magnitude will not be seen in this area in our lifetimes.
This is called a 500 year flood because the flooding is so extent that it is calculated this type of severe flooding is only going to happen 1 in 500 years. Insurance companies use these calculations to decide if a property could be compromised by flooding. 1993 was a 100 year flood, this flooding in 2008 is a 500 year flood.
500-yr flood is a hydrogeology term to describe a magnitude of flooding that occurs only once every 500 years.
Ok, to all of you asking what a 500-year flood is, I can explain. One of the initial tasks that I do at work is go to the NOAA website…enter in the coordinates for the location of the site that I am to begin designing improvements for, and find how many inches of rainwater will be dumped at this particular site for the “design storm.” Usually, the design storm is the 100 year, two hour storm, which is to say, a storm that has the likleyhood of occuring only once in 100 years, lasting for a two hour duration. So when the author states that it is the “500 year flood,” he is referring to a storm that statistically, only will occur once every 500 years or so.
I agree that the author of this article is very vague (to say the least!) in pointing this out.
Allow me to help out. 100 year and 500 year floods are standard terms for insurance purposes. The 500 year flood plain is the area that has a .2% chance of flooding every year. This flood actually extended beyond the 500 year plain, but we have no official term for that, so it is still called a 500 year flood. I never knew this either, but I live in Cedar Rapids, IA and hear it all the time, now.
It was said by several Iowa politicians that the flooding in Iowa isn’t a “once every 100 years” type of event….but rather a “once every 500 years” type of event.
That is where the story headline comes from. I’m unable to recall who said it, a senator or mayor perhaps ?
a 500 year flood is a peak flood level over a 500 year period.
In engineering, a 500-year flood means there is a 1 in 500 chance of that flood happening in any given year. Second, I think it’s pretty common to say “married (insert name).” Pastors marry many many people, it’s pretty ovbious he did not get married TO his mother. I agree with the rest of your complaints.
Another word for 500-yr flood is a 0.02% chance flood. That is, a flood level that has a 0.02% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Statistically thinking, over thousands of years, such a flood would be equaled or exceeded, on average, about once every 500-years. That is where the term comes from.
You calculate the frequency (500-yr) by taking the inverse of the annual probability (.02%). In other words 1/.02=500. You will most likely see this terminology misused and abused in the next few weeks.
Theoretically, you could see a 500-year flood in consecutive years.
Ok, to all of you asking what a 500-year flood is, I can explain. One of the initial tasks that I do at work is go to the NOAA website…enter in the coordinates for the location of the site that I am to begin designing improvements for, and find how many inches of rainwater will be dumped at this particular site for the “design storm.” Usually, the design storm is the 100 year, two hour storm, which is to say, a storm that has the likleyhood of occuring only once in 100 years, lasting for a two hour duration. So when the author states that it is the “500 year flood,” he is referring to a storm that statistically, only will occur once every 500 years or so.
I agree that the author of this article is very vague (to say the least!) in pointing this out…however, I’m sure in the age of “Googling” everything, you could find out fairly easily. Just takes a little common sense…
If I’m not mistaken, a 500-year flood is a term used by to say that an area is likely to have a flood every 500 years. The closer you live to a body of water, the lower the number, like 100-year flood.
Google can be your friend. 500 year flood has a specific meaning:
http://www.prairiepublic.org/features/riverwatch/q&a/index.html
I wish ignorance was painful.
The probability of a flood this huge happens only once in 500 years. That is why it is called a 500 year flood.
The terms “10 year”, “50 year”, “100 year” and “500 year” floods are used to describe the estimated probability of a flood event happening in any given year.
A one-hundred-year flood is calculated to be the level of flood water expected to be equaled or exceeded every 100 years on average. The 100-year flood is more accurately referred to as the 1% flood, since it is a flood that has a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any single year. Based on the expected flood water level, a predicted area of inundation can be mapped out. This floodplain map figures very importantly in building permits, environmental regulations, and flood insurance.
A 500-year flood has a 0.2% chance of occurring in any given year.
While unlikely, it is possible to have two 100 or even 500 year floods within years or months of each other. It is very unusual for Iowa to have had a 100 year flood in 1993 and a 500 year flood only 15 years later in 2008.
Q: WHAT IS THE “500-YEAR FLOOD”?
A: The 500-year flood, like the 100-year flood is misleading. The 500-year flood is not the flood that will occur every 500 years, instead, it is the flood that has a .2% chance of occurring each year. The 500-year flood, which is the standard used by most Federal and state agencies, is used by the National Flood Insurance Program as the standard for floodplain management and to determine the need for flood insurance.
So this is a 500 year flood bc it has a .2% chance of happening in any given year. Or more simply put, the chance is 1 in 500. Not because it only happens once every 500 years or because it’s been flooding for 500 yrs.
Municipalities typically design flood control measures (like floodwalls or levees) to handle 100- or 200-year floods — storm events that, based on meterological conditions of the region, occur every 100 or 200 or 500 years. Since the flood control measures are typically under-engineered, cities can experience extensive flooding and damage.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, should know what a 500-year flood means. The 1993 flood that happened there was called a 100-year flood. Only once in 500 (or 100) years should the flooding be that bad. They determine that by looking at the elevations, river course, etc. Insurance companies use the same language/logic. A 500 year flood is so bad that the water rises far above flood stage and far above what any geographical surveyor would call the flood plain. Imagine your house a half mile from the river and thirty feet higher in elevation but still getting flooded. No one in that location would have flood insurance. It would be a waste of money. Like getting hurricane insurance in the coast of Maine- shouldn’t ever be an issue.
Well if it’s 500 years of flooding I suggest that every inhabitant of the city purchase a jet ski.
Five hundred years is a long time to spend in college; just think of all the loans amassed by those students! I wonder what interest rates the bank would put on a 500 year college loan? I mean, forget about crazies marrying their moms (Greek royalty, and officiators of mothers’ weddings not included) this is a huge financial disaster just lingering to happen!
I mean, it’s either a disaster of epic proportions, or a national disaster suffering from second-hand English i.e.: while the editor’s away the writers will play.
Hey everybody, I’m a Civil Engineer and it looks like I’m just on time to step in here. In the engineering community (and in all communities) a “500 year flood” is a flood that is statistically so rare that it will happen only one time in a 500 year span. As you can imagine, really big storms and floods are really rare, and thus will only occur, statistically, once in a great many years. The same goes for a 100 year flood and so on. Most people looking to build a new building will be aware of the 100 year flood plain (the area which will be inundated by a flood occuring, statistically, every 100 years) and avoid building there to protect the building from potential flood hazards. Floods larger than the 100 year flood are typically not planned for as extensively, because people are gambling that the 500 year flood or the 1000 year flood wont hit. The interesting thing to remember is that a 500 year flood CAN POSSIBLY OCCUR more than one time in a year. This seems like an oxymoron, but let me explain: The odds of one person winning the lottery are huge, right? Probably like 500,000 to 1 or something (for the sake of discussion), but I think that we can all agree that, however unlikely it may be, an individual COULD POSSIBLY win 2 or more times in a year. Thus, even though it’s incredibly unlikely (1 in 500), another 500 year flood could still hit the city in the year 2008.
A 500 year flood is a predictablity measurement of how likely that a particular area will or will not flood. The 500 year flood mark is a line that is drawn through parts of the city stating that this area is significantly less likely to flood than the 100 year mark. Yes, percentages would be much easier. Let’s forget the non-sense of this article and just pray for all the people affected, give money to the American Red Cross so they can help the needy, and/or going to help.
a 500 yr flood zone is a designation from FEMA, it essentially means there’s a 1 in 500 year chance that a flood will happen in that area, or a .2% chance in any given year.
Floods are infrequent, but they happen. Big floods are less frequent than small floods. A 100-year flood is one so big it can only be expected to occur an average of every 100 years. You could live there your whole life and never see one. A 500-year flood is much bigger and would only be expected to occur an average of every 500 years. I thought everyone knew this. Well, now you know. Same thing for heat waves, draughts, and snowstorms.
What does 500 year flood mean? The 500-year floodplain is an area designated on a flood map projected to experience flooding once on average during a 500 year period, not necessarilly every 500 years, just on average. It’s a matter of chance. A 500-year flood has a 0.2% chance of occurring in any given year in a given location. A 500-year floodplain would be a better construction site than a 100-year floodplain, for example, but a site completely outside a floodplain would be best;-). You might want to casually check your local FEMA Flood Zone / Flood Insurance Rate Map at http://msc.fema.gov well before it becomes an emergency.
For those of you wondering what they mean by 500 year flood, obviously you don’t follow floods much. For large floods they always talk about a 100 year flood or a 500 year flood. A 500 year flood is when the flood is so high over floodstage that on average it would only be expected to be that bad every 500 years. Although you may see it happen within a few years of each other, but then you might not see it get that high again for 1000 years. There is no exact science to it, and really, since people have only populated this area for 200 years, calling it a 500 year flood is truly just guess work. This could just be a 100 year flood.
As for the pastor marrying his mother. Maybe he is from Arkansas or maybe he officiating the wedding. I guess we will never know.
A 500 year flood is one that is so rare that it only occurs once in 500 years…It doen’t take rocket science to figure it out…apparently most of you went to Iowa.
I believe it means that each year that area has a 1/500 (0.2%) chance of experiencing substantial flooding.
The term “500-year flood” describes the the event periodicity – only once in a 500 year period will the levels crest to this water level. This is a normal usage for those of us fortunate to live on a large river. I have bought my home – high and dry – during a 100-year flood, and haven’t had to swim out of my bed to date. I agree with the sentiment that building your home in a river bottom is madness – sounds like the sparrow in the rain spout to me. Tell your lazy congressmen / women to not support this behaivor – don’t encourage people who build in a flood plain, and DON”T pay off their balloon mortgage if they borrowed too much money. No sense in paying the stupid for their actions!
Caveat Emptor!
[...] A 500-year flood swept through the University of Iowa. McCain reminisces about the previous 500-year flood. Emergencies always favor Big Government. Not [...]
500 year floods can occur back to back. Once every 500 years does not mean every 500 years on the dot. DOH!
Call it whatever you want…it’s a mess and a heartache for alot of people! God Bless all the volunteers and workers who are making a difference!
Has anyone noticed….no looting, no riots….just helping neighbor to neighbor. God bless the Iowans for such class under such duress.
Wow! 35 (+ or -) answers to a question that was never asked and they all say the same thing. By the way——–read the article again. It doesn’t even say anything close to “marrying his mother”. Duh