Flooding around Des Moines (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City: insurance, buying a house, neighborhoods)

[Hey Florida..Bu bye]

Hi eveyone,

We are thinking of relocation to Iowa. We have a little boy and want a great place for him. My wife's main concern is flooding. So let me have it without the sugar coating. How often? How Bad? Is it worse in De Moines than Ames, Urbandale etc. Is it only a major concern toward Cedar Rapids. I told her there are natural disasters everywhere. I understand how she feels. We both have been through Hurricanes of many levels. Flooding seems much worse. Any info would be great. Iowa looks like an awesome place to raise our son.

[mofford]

Neighborhoods close to rivers and creeks will have the greatest chance of flooding, especially near the Des Moines River. The city of Des Moines proper has more land at low elevation compared to the suburbs that can flood. The south part of West Des Moines can get some flooding in the Valley Junction neighborhood from the Racoon River and Walnut Creek, but is better protected now with levys and flood gates. Altoona, Ankeny, Grimes, Urbandale, most of Clive and WDM are pretty safe from flooding and have good schools.

[Chicago60614]

The hardest part of the whole flooding thing is that the state got swamped in 1993, and then again in 2008 - particularly Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

Statistically that "just shouldn't happen". They were 100 or 500 year floods hitting 15 years apart. Now I think there's this terror of when will it happen again. I honestly think it's just a freak happening, but who knows what the future will bring. I mean none of those cities may have any major flooding in the next 250 years.

I would be aware of your house and elevation, take precautions, but typically Des Moines doesn't have HUGE problems with flooding. What happened in 2008 was a very freak occurance, especially for poor Cedar Rapids. I mean they got flooded above their 500 year flood level. Places that basically couldn't flood in the realm of human imagination were totally swamped. People just couldn't understand it.

It's crazy that the flood stage is 9 feet....the all time record set almost a century ago was 21 feet.....and this thing crested at 33 feet. Breaking a record by a few inches or a foot is newsworthy......breaking it by TWELVE FEET is something amazing.

[SharpHawkeye]

Des Moines (and WDSM, ect.) all learned a LOT from 1993. They built pumps and levees and flood walls and everything else. The 2008 floods really showed off how far they've come.

The QC and Dubuque also learned a lot from 1993 and made a lot of changes to manage floods in the future.

Another thing to consider is that Iowa City and Des Moines both have upriver dams--making it a lot easier to control smaller floods. The Big Ones still go over the spilways, though.

Seriously, you can avoid the vast majority of flood headaches by simply being smart about where you choose to live. Check out FEMA flood maps before you commit to buying a house. If you must live in a flood-prone area, for Pete's sake, BUY FLOOD INSURANCE!

[Hey Florida..Bu bye]

Thank you all for your responses. I know some of the flooding was just a freak thing. We lived in South Florida when Hurricane Andrew destroy just about everything and that was not a every year hurricane. So I get the things that sometimes just "happen". We just want the best for our son and Iowa seems like a great place. We hope to visit next year.

Thanks again
Tony