Loebsack proposes National Flood Center to research and prevent floods

Congressman Dave Loebsack wants Iowa to be the site of a National Flood Center to help study and prevent floods. A proposed bill would allocate 10 million dollars to create the center, which would focus on academic research, flood forecasting, and flood prevention.

“There's been more work done here than just about anywhere else in the country on these issue,” Loebsack said. “We've had to do the work because of what happened in 2008 and in subsequent years.”

The legislation, called the National Flood Research and Education Act, would create a consortium within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Though the bill doesn’t establish a location for the center, Loebsack said he’d be happy to see the center at the University of Iowa.

There, researchers and students already take on flood-related work as part of the Iowa Flood Center. Loebsack said his proposal would centralize information and knowledge from several agencies, making it easier for other cities and states to access.

“We’ve got to look at floods in a comprehensive way,” he said. “We have to build on promising methods and techniques, so we can better predict and prevent flooding in the future.”