Page 92 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

91 Dubuque Tackles Chronic Flooding, Restoring Resilience to a Disadvantaged Area Cletus Cashman, a decorated Korean War veteran who has lived and worked his whole life in the North End neighborhood of Dubuque, Iowa, spoke of the years he spent bailing out his basement whenever there was a big rain. "I'd get up at all hours, 1, 2, 3, 4 o'clock—and stay down there until I got it under control," he related in a video interview from the City of Dubuque. "I'm a stubborn old Irishman and a Marine, and I never give up on anything." Across decades, he logged hours of cleanup work through anxious nights as he and his neighbors dealt with undersized storm sewers not large enough to handle even a moderate rain event. Dubuque's steep slopes and bluffs shed water quickly from the west to the east into flat areas adjacent to the Mississippi River. As a result of increasingly intense and localized rainstorms, devastating flash flooding became a recurring problem.