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Burlington receives grant for flood wall

BURLINGTON, Iowa – Back in 2008, the Mississippi River flowed into downtown Burlington, Iowa stopping activities in the city. “We have had several i...

BURLINGTON, Iowa - Back in 2008, the Mississippi River flowed into downtown Burlington, Iowa stopping activities in the city. "We have had several in the last couple years that have flooded up into the downtown, gone into the basements of all the downtown businesses, flooded out the post office, so it`s pretty bad," said Kathy Thomas, resident.

The city has been awarded a $26.2 million grant from the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Flood Mitigation Fund. "What were going to be doing is a mix of completely removable walls where their just posts that you drop panels in between and semi-permanent 4 foot walls that could be made higher by dropping panels on top of those walls," said Charlie Nichols, City Planner.

In addition, the city will be building flood water pumping stations. All of the flood mitigation will happen in 4 phases, with the 1st phase expected to be done in 2017. "That will be protecting the river front directly adjacent to downtown Burlington as well as we have a storm water pumping station down here to our south we`ll be flood proofing that pumping station," said Nichols.

The announcement of building the flood wall has some residents in downtown Burlington excited. "I think it`s a good idea we have a lot of floods down here and it`s about time they did something about it," said John Moulter, resident.

The building has also brought up some concerns to residents. "Do we want to lose our view of our riverfront, no but I guess we`ll just trust the plan," said Thomas.

The city planner says they understand the importance of the river front. Their plan is to put the semi-permanent walls in the spots where residents view the river and permanent walls around the Waste Water Treatment Plant.

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