The World Bank recently announced it will offer free flood risk data to 16 developing countries — a step partly made possible by lessons learned from a 2008 flood in Iowa.

Columbus Junction was one of four Iowa communities selected last December to be a member of the Iowa Flood Resilient Communities Cohort; and during the city council’s regular meeting on Wednesday, a team of experts met with city officials to explain the cohort and its purpose.

The Iowa Flood Center received $1 million to expand flood and drought monitoring, watershed management, and forecasting services in Eastern Iowa through Congress’s Community Project Funding.

The Gazette covers the rising cost of extreme weather in Iowa and how climate change is driving it.

The Iowa Flood Center will work with the American Flood Coalition and serve as a technical resource for cohort communities to support them in accessing federal funding for flood projects.

As rising global temperatures make extreme storms more common, the nation’s dams and reservoirs – crucial to keeping communities dry – are being tested.

It has been 15 years since the record breaking flooding that was seen across Eastern Iowa. One of the cities that was hit particularly hard was Iowa City. The 2008 flood shattered all prior flooding records in Iowa, doing major damage.

The city gives tens of thousands of dollars annually to flood mitigation efforts.

The University of Iowa is launching a new research center to improve flood prediction.