Silver Jackets: Many Partners, One team

SILVER JACKETS

Many Partners, One Team

 

2011 Silver Jackets Team of the Year: Iowa Silver Jackets

The Iowa Team was awarded the “Silver Jackets Team of the Year” for their outstanding contribution to flood risk management. Their priorities include local, county, and regional floodplain education and flood risk management training, focusing interagency capability on select pilot watersheds, supporting state-wide floodplain mapping and Risk MAP implementation, awareness of tools and information from agencies such as NRCS and NWS, and expanding community participation in the Community Rating System. Their accomplishments include implementing a locally supported combined structural/non-structural levee repair alternative, floodplain management recommendations to the Iowa legislature, prioritizing Community Development Block Grant funded projects, post-dam failure maximum flood extent mapping, and a flood awareness and readiness campaign. Of particular note is the Green Island Levee and Drainage District, an interagency non-structural alternative to acquire floodplain easements and restore 1200 acres of wetlands. Establishing this team and its working relationships has resulted in meaningful collaboration between agencies at multiple levels of government.


U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supports state-led Silver Jackets Teams through its Flood Risk Management Program.