Heavy rainfall in 2008 inundated the Coralville, Iowa, area. Six inches of rain fell on already saturated ground over a 48-hour period in June. It wasn’t the wettest year on record, but 2008 brought too much rain over too short a time. Damages and property loss were widespread and unprecedented.
“We’re downstream of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control reservoir on a large watershed and adjacent to the Iowa River,” says Dan Holderness, city engineer. “In most...