FEMA Tour of Lyon Creek Flood Reduction Project

Lyon Creek flood reduction project
Photo by Jerry Pickard

From City Administrator Pete Rose - report to the LFP City Council

On October 20, 2016, FEMA staff did a field trip of the Lyon Creek Flood Reduction Project.

Aaron Halverson, Environmental Programs Manager in Public Works, received last minute notice that the Regional Director would be joining the group.

As it turned out, the entourage was accompanied by a delegation from the US Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, which has FEMA in its portfolio.

Aaron gave an excellent presentation and walking tour.

This was the only completed project they toured. They were very impressed with many features of the project, not the least of which was the time-lapse video of the 58 hour SR 522 culvert replacement.

The Regional Director added verbiage to several slides to emphasize for the Senate staff the extra considerations for restoring salmon habitat in western projects.

A factoid that we picked up in the discourse was that the year the $3 million FEMA grant was awarded (late 2012), it was the largest single grant from that fund source that year, and $23 million in total was awarded nationwide. This may be a testament to the regional cooperation that resulted in the application.