Study of 2016 flood finds the entire Upper Iowa River Watershed was affected

There was significant flooding in this area during August and September of 2016.  The Freeport area was the hardest hit, and so has gotten the most attention.  But a Luther College study concludes all of the residents of the Upper Iowa River Watershed "experienced significant flooding."

Researchers from Luther sent out a paper survey to a randomly selected sample of 2,250 households in the Iowa portion of the Upper Iowa River Watershed.  470 usable surveys were received, for a 21.5 percent response rate.  40 percent of those responding said their home or property had been flooded in some way.

53 percent of households upstream from Decorah indicated flooding; 35 percent of properties in Decorah and Freeport indicated flooding; and 47 percent of the households downstream from Decorah indicated flooding.

The survey found that farmland was most affected by the flooding--61 percent of farmland property had flooding, while 47 percent of rural households and 34 percent of town and city households reported flooding.

Luther researches discovered that low-income families were most affected by the flooding, with those earning under $15,000 a year having flood damage averaging 70 percent of their income.  People in the highest income bracket also suffered significant flooding damage, but they were much more likely to be able to afford repairs.

An interesting finding of the survey was that 44 percent of all people responding said they had experienced the effects of the flooding--even if their property didn't, with impacts such as having to drive alternate routes, missing work or losing electricity.