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Cities on the Mississippi from QC to Louisiana are seeing $2 billion in flood damage

Seven city mayors along the Mississippi held a phone conference to discuss what they are fighting after the flood of 2019.
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DAVENPORT, Iowa – Damage from record breaking flooding on the Mississippi River is estimated to cost $2 billion for the region from the Quad Cities to Louisiana.

This amount is what seven mayors along the river discussed Tuesday morning on a phone call.

The flood hit close to home when the wall failed in downtown Davenport, but what happened in the Quad Cities has a major impact on what happened downriver too.

“We are all in this together,” says Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch. “One city is important but all of us together has a much greater impact.”

Communities like Davenport down to New Orleans are now in flood recovery mode.

“It is the wettest June to May in the last 124 years for the eastern US and the Mississippi Valley,” says Jared Gartman of the US Army Corp of Engineers.

Every city included in the call saw an impact.

“The Mississippi River in Alton stretched seven miles wide, it was a massive event,” Alton, Illinois Mayor Brant Walker says.

“We’ve had 15 sewer failures, 30 street failures all because of the water all in those impoverished areas,” comments Greenville, Mississippi Mayor Errick Simmons.

But this flood season cities along the river south of the Quad Cities are thankful for wetlands north of them on the Davenport riverfront.

“First, I want to thank the City of Davenport and it’s nine miles of riverfront park and its ability to absorb, which I'm convinced here in Grafton does tremendously not only to us but also to the other communities in the south,” says Grafton, Illinois Mayor Rick Eberlin.

Now, all the cities are taking the flood of 2019 as a lesson learned as they look to improve.

“We’ll probably receive more flooding in the future before we have a more long-term initiative,” says Klipsch.

Klipsch says the City of Davenport is forming a task force to brainstorm ways to prevent flooding.  That group of 20 people will start meeting after July 4th.

The Army Corp of Engineers says it’ll be mid to late July when all of the area is out of flood stage except for New Orleans.

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