Even With Damp Edges, Davenport Resists a River Wall

Dozens of other Mississippi River towns learned their lesson 36 years ago. After the devastating flood of ‘65, they built flood walls.

But with the third “100-year” flood in a decade now approaching its crest here, this city of 98,000 still has no riprap levee, no steel gate system, no grass-covered dike protecting it from the rising river. And everywhere Mayor Phillip C. Yerington went Monday, it seemed, people wanted to know why.

“Wait until July,” said the burly and gregarious former police lieutenant. “It’s 75 degrees, there are 30,000 people on the riverfront, hundreds of boats out on the water, everybody listening to jazz. Not a single person will be talking about a flood wall.”

Indeed, Davenport long has resisted sacrificing its view of the mighty river for protection from its spring and summer uprisings.

And even if the Mississippi reaches its expected, near-record level of 22 1/2 feet tonight--flooding as much as 1,700 acres of the city’s waterfront--few here really expect a serious push for protection.

“First, a levee wouldn’t be the miracle some people think,” Yerington said. “Second, we are a river town. We have a gambling boat. The money that built City Hall in the 1800s came from the brothels. This is who we are.”

Wind gusts of more than 45 mph helped drive the already-flooding river over and through makeshift levees up and down the shores of Iowa and Illinois on Monday. Water crashed through dikes in Albany, Rapids City and Moline, Ill., among other places.

Throughout Davenport, shouts, sirens and a rush of workers in hip-waders signaled a softening in the sandbag berms built to protect some downtown businesses and residences on the west side’s riverfront. By late in the day, the workers--including 150 National Guard engineers--had plugged several holes. But the breaches seemed to come more frequently as the day wore on and the water kept rising.

The 7-foot-high, plastic-covered berm around the city’s minor league baseball stadium gave way Sunday. But officials with the Davenport Bandits said the $250,000 worth of sod could be saved as long as the river recedes in the next five or six days. That became more and more unlikely Monday as forecasters extended the period of time the Mississippi would crest here--from 24 to 36 hours--and said it might take weeks to recede.

As some Guard members worked the levees, others helped police keep thousands of sightseers away from the ever-changing riverfront. With the temperature dropping into the 40s--and with about two nights’ sleep in the last five--Pfc. Brent Smith was thrilled to pull guard duty. At least he was dry.

“We’re based here,” the 18-year-old said with a smile. “We get to choose our duty.”

Even as Smith spoke, the levee outside the Front Street Brewery a block away was starting to collapse. The brewery closed early Sunday, flooded for the third time since 1993. “Don’t they think it’s about time to build a wall?” owner Jennie Ash wondered.

The local paper, the Quad-City Times--its own offices surrounded by water--conducted an online poll, asking essentially the same question. By a 4-1 margin, the 1,004 people who had responded by late Monday said yes, the city should build a levee.

In Washington, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh briefed President Bush on the situation and then sided with those answering the poll. “How many times will the American taxpayer have to step in and take care of this flooding?” he asked.

Yerington has heard that argument before too.

“We don’t ask people who live near the fault lines in California to move. We don’t force out people who live in hurricane areas or make people move out of Tornado Alley. Lots of people,” he said, “have already moved to higher ground. But we have as much right to federal disaster relief as anyone else.”

Besides, most city officials say, there has never been much support for a levee. Cleaning up the 1993 flood cost the city about $3 million, the federal government about $3.5 million. But tourism officials credit Davenport’s rare levee-free waterfront with bringing in $100 million annually.

“The truth is, most people here don’t even like [allowing] parking down by the river because it obstructs their view,” Public Works Director Dee Bruemmer said. “It’s a quality-of-life thing. And the flood plain was identified in the 1970s. People who live or build there know exactly what they’re getting into.”

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Last Line of Defense

While most of its neighbor cities have chosen to build DefenseWhile most of its neighbor cities have chosen to build multi-million-dollar flood protection systems, Davenport, Iowa, has opted to keep its unobstructed relationship with its river. Most communities rely on flood walls or levees such as this one:

Sources: Encyclopedia Americana, Associated Press