May 2019 Flood: Arkansas River Floodplain Analysis
USACE Tulsa District in Tulsa, Muskogee, and Sequoyah Counties, Oklahoma
US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Tulsa District hired Meshek & Associates to develop and refine an impact analysis along the Arkansas River in the months following record rainfall and flooding in May 2019.
In the first few meetings, it became apparent the resources provided by FEMA, the Small Business Administration (SBA), insurance, and other participants, were not enough to help communities fully recover. County commissioners and USACE requested that Meshek coordinate and facilitate a meeting to determine the potential of supplemental disaster appropriations. The request and meeting focused on two Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs: The Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and The Community Development Block Grant — Mitigation (CDBG-MIT). The meeting included local, state, and federal officials, along with a Congressional Delegation.
Two months after the meeting, HUD announced an appropriation of $36 million in CDBG-DR funds. Meshek & Associates has continued to be involved at the local level in anticipation of the CDBG-DR funds in Oklahoma. Our planning and grant team the use of these funds to meet the local cost share requirements of FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs.
This experience continues to be heavily relied on in the areas impacted by the 2019 flood event as communities navigate the vast array of recovery programs. In response, Meshek developed several tools to highlight unmet needs and identify low to moderate income populations. The USACE viewer, for example, identifies the May 2019 flood extent, and depth of flooding in structures in the impacted areas. Using National Flood Insurance Program policy and claim information, communities with access to the viewer can identify which structures did not have flood insurance at the time of event, and thus can request additional federal assistance in their recovery efforts.
Meshek used bare-earth Digital Elevation Model (DEM) datasets from 3DEP (3D Elevation Program), which were merged into a seamless terrain to map the flooding extents. These maps identify the total structures impacted by the May 2019 flooding. These datasets were organized in multiple ArcGIS Online operations dashboards, web-viewers, and story maps. Local officials and USACE staff also used these tools to develop battle plans for a range of potential future flooding events.
