Flooding Press Conference

Just listened to the flooding update press conference on cyclones.com.

One thing that stuck out for me was that the lead time to procure new floor level seats in Hilton is 18 weeks. Other options include purchasing 2,500 chairs to provide floor seating (on the risers?).

That and the FPM department is buring $18,000/day of fuel to power generators, trucks, ect.

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Originally Posted by isuaggie

Just listened to the flooding update press conference on cyclones.com.

One thing that stuck out for me was that the lead time to procure new floor level seats in Hilton is 18 weeks. Other options include purchasing 2,500 chairs to provide floor seating (on the risers?).

That and the FPM department is buring $18,000/day of fuel to power generators, trucks, ect.

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Ouch. That number hurts. How long do they think they will be doing this for?

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Originally Posted by CycloneJames

Ouch. That number hurts. How long do they think they will be doing this for?

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The common answer was "as long as it takes to quickly get places back to a safe condition to renovate".

They hired two disaster cleanup companies (~500 people) to do the hard work. One company for outdoor/flat surfaces (parking & fields). The other for interior work.

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Originally Posted by isuaggie

The common answer was "as long as it takes to quickly get places back to a safe condition to renovate".

They hired two disaster cleanup companies (~500 people) to do the hard work. One company for outdoor/flat surfaces (parking & fields). The other for interior work.

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What needs to be done to flood-proof the thing? Seems it wouldn't take moving heaven and earth but this is twice in a decade-ish... Maybe it makes sense?

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Originally Posted by SpokaneCY

What needs to be done to flood-proof the thing? Seems it wouldn't take moving heaven and earth but this is twice in a decade-ish... Maybe it makes sense?

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The things they had in placed functioned correctly. The problem was that the water hit record heights where they didn't plan to have to hold it off. They just need to address the risks in the parts that are higher than they expected. Like the west entrance of Hilton.

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Originally Posted by SpokaneCY

What needs to be done to flood-proof the thing? Seems it wouldn't take moving heaven and earth but this is twice in a decade-ish... Maybe it makes sense?

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They said that the areas that failed in 1993 (and upgraded there after) did not fail this time. It was new areas of failure. I'd be willing to bet that if FEMA & other insurances come through as believed that you will see Elwood (that's right ELWOOD!) raised and a burm (sp?) added like around MWL.

Ian Smith is there covering this for CF. I'll post his report later on today.

They were also taking a tour of Hilton for new video/pictures for the media.

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Originally Posted by isuaggie

They said that the areas that failed in 1993 (and upgraded there after) did not fail this time. It was new areas of failure. I'd be willing to bet that if FEMA & other insurances come through as believed that you will see Elwood (that's right ELWOOD!) raised and a burm (sp?) added like around MWL.

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Yeah, I wonder if they forgot that just because they block off one area of water, the water will go someplace else. No matter what they do, that flood water will be flooding some other place, they need to find a way to contain it all to the East side of Elwood/University and the only way I see that happening is raising the road, with no low sections. One low section and the water will just run through it like a river and flood the same place all over again.

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Originally Posted by isuaggie

They said that the areas that failed in 1993 (and upgraded there after) did not fail this time. It was new areas of failure. I'd be willing to bet that if FEMA & other insurances come through as believed that you will see Elwood (that's right ELWOOD!) raised and a burm (sp?) added like around MWL.

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I'd be surprised to see University itself raised. The really vulnerable spot is north of Lincoln way, by the train bridge. Meaning they'd have to raise the Lincoln way instersection as well. Not so mention S 4th and possibly S 16th. That's alot of raising, A LOT of work. 4 lane divided road.

And frankly, not sure I'd like that idea. It'd be gov't and they'd do the bare minimum. Seems that it'd be easier to put a larger berm around Hilton, MWL and Lied - like you suggested. Could be higher (if only a foot or two) and I'd think far less costly, and wouldn't have the impact on the east side of the creek (pushing water there).

Putting a flood gate on that train bridge would be a good start. But looking at the photos, I completely forgot about the creek that runs through campus, between Lied & MWL, and empties into Squaw. What the heck do you do there?

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Originally Posted by vmbplayer

The things they had in placed functioned correctly. The problem was that the water hit record heights where they didn't plan to have to hold it off. They just need to address the risks in the parts that are higher than they expected. Like the west entrance of Hilton.

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Wrong wrong wrong. They did not place things correctly. The water should have been held back if they were prepared/knew what they were doing.

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Originally Posted by DaddyMac

I'd be surprised to see University itself raised. The really vulnerable spot is north of Lincoln way, by the train bridge. Meaning they'd have to raise the Lincoln way instersection as well. Not so mention S 4th and possibly S 16th. That's alot of raising, A LOT of work. 4 lane divided road.

And frankly, not sure I'd like that idea. It'd be gov't and they'd do the bare minimum. Seems that it'd be easier to put a larger berm around Hilton, MWL and Lied - like you suggested. Could be higher (if only a foot or two) and I'd think far less costly, and wouldn't have the impact on the east side of the creek (pushing water there).

Putting a flood gate on that train bridge would be a good start. But looking at the photos, I completely forgot about the creek that runs through campus, between Lied & MWL, and empties into Squaw. What the heck do you do there?

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Sometimes they reroute the creek, bury it, allow pooling upstream, or combo.

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Originally Posted by DaddyMac

I'd be surprised to see University itself raised. The really vulnerable spot is north of Lincoln way, by the train bridge. Meaning they'd have to raise the Lincoln way instersection as well. Not so mention S 4th and possibly S 16th. That's alot of raising, A LOT of work. 4 lane divided road.

And frankly, not sure I'd like that idea. It'd be gov't and they'd do the bare minimum. Seems that it'd be easier to put a larger berm around Hilton, MWL and Lied - like you suggested. Could be higher (if only a foot or two) and I'd think far less costly, and wouldn't have the impact on the east side of the creek (pushing water there).

Putting a flood gate on that train bridge would be a good start. But looking at the photos, I completely forgot about the creek that runs through campus, between Lied & MWL, and empties into Squaw. What the heck do you do there?

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I don't think they'd actually need to raise University Boulevard much at all to make it effective. There was only a foot or so of water over the road, so if you raised it a couple feet from 4th to Lincoln Way, you prevent water from going through there. If you raise Lincoln Way a couple feet where there was about a foot of water, you alleviate the north side. Center Drive is a natural barrier, and Beach also provides a natural barrier so the ISC is protected. Flood gates on the tunnels and Hilton/Scheman/CY Stephens are sealed off. If they lose the parking lots between JTS and Hilton, oh well.

The little creek that runs through campus is the least of their worries.

Just build a big freakin levi around Hilton. It really don't seem to hard if you ask me.

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Originally Posted by isuaggie

Just listened to the flooding update press conference on cyclones.com.

One thing that stuck out for me was that the lead time to procure new floor level seats in Hilton is 18 weeks. Other options include purchasing 2,500 chairs to provide floor seating (on the risers?).

That and the FPM department is buring $18,000/day of fuel to power generators, trucks, ect.

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Weren't those seats already removable, folding type seats? I thought that they were already on risers to be removed easily. I guess I thought the first two rows of parquet seats that got water would be the bigger issue.