Study: Flood recovery rules work against Iowa’s most vulnerable

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Cedar Rapids Gazette: With flooding expected to become more common across Iowa, vulnerable “front-line” communities including the poor and people of color are likely to be hurt the most, according to a study released Thursday by the Iowa Policy Project. The study examined the immediate and longer-term impacts of flooding, finding that wealth is a “strong indicator” of a community’s ability to rebound from the impacts of a disaster. “Frontline communities often lack the ability to fully recover or move away from hazardous areas,” wrote “Flooding and Inequity” author Joseph Wilensky, a graduate student studying urban planning at the University of Iowa. As severe floods become more common in part due to climate change, “these communities may be trapped in a cycle of disaster and recovery, coming out worse each time until communities are broken apart and their members forced to move to other locations” that might not be any safer, the study concluded.

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