09-17-07 Meeting of Drainage and Flooding Committee

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"Commissioner!" Through phone static, he recognized the voice of the mayor. "I need you to come to the emergency operations center right away. I'll send a truck to get you. It's flooding." "No!" said the commissioner. "Where?" "Everywhere." Thus began Tulsa's worst natural disaster, our 1984 flood. G City leaders huddled in the Emergency Operations Center throughout the nightmare night, shell- T g ;E shocked by volley after volley of horrifying reports of destruction all across town. They mustered all available forces to battle the flood. There were miraculous victories, such as in Holiday Mobile Home Park, where a life flight helicopter pilot braved the storm to rescue 40 people; they were plucked from their roofs, one by one, by an outstretched hand of the chopper nurse. Overall, our forces were puny by comparison to the overwhelming power of the water reclaiming its floodplains. Before dawn, as much as 15 inches of rain had fallen. Fourteen Tulsans had lost their lives in flashing waves of water. Another 288 were hurt. Nearly 7,000 homes and businesses were ruined, and another 7,000 cars and trucks — including city fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances — were destroyed. Damage was $183 million. During that terrible night, the commissioner and our new young mayor vowed to do whatever they could — and the political cost be damned — to prevent Tulsa from suffering such a flood again. That commitment produced Tulsa's comprehensive stormwater management program — a program born of great loss, hard lessons, and tremendous political courage. BACKGROUND Floods have haunted Tulsa's history. Tulsa was built over the past hundred years on the banks of the Arkansas River, on rolling terrain networked with floodplains. The city, now encompassing 200 square miles and r 380,000 citizens, lies within the infamous "tornado alley," where colliding weather systems often pro- duce spectacular thunderstorms, most treacherous in the spring and fall. As we grew, lowland develop- ment was ripe for flooding that seemed worse every year. By the 1980s, Tulsa County had garnered the worst flood record in the United States, nine federal flood disaster declarations in 15 years. Real estate markets were virtually dead in sprawling sectors of our com- munity; and we were gaining a reputation as the nation's flood capital, thwarting economic development. The city's record was transformed from "worst to best" after that flash flood on Memorial Day 1984. The program actually began in the 1970s, when Tulsa entered the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), but local political opposition stunted implementation. After the '84 flood, leaders were able to muster community -wide consensus that continues today. Since 1993, our citizens have enjoyed the lowest flood insurance rates in the U.S. because the federal government's community rating system has ranked our program first in the nation. Success Stories 6