Experts are predicting new high water marks during the Mississippi River floods that have been devastating communities as the river swells from the Midwest to Louisiana. While the Army Corps of Engineers does its best to manage the waters through its systems of dams and levees, local governments are working non-stop to support their citizens in these areas.

All communities face some risk of natural disaster or other emergency, and the Mississippi floods provide a good opportunity for local governments to revisit their own plans. ICMA has produced several documents that address the issue of emergency management and disaster recovery which may also prove useful to communities affected by the recent flooding.

• ICMA’s Governmental Affairs and Policy Committee released a 2006 white paper called "A Networked Approach to Emergency Management" which calls for a model that better coordinates the disaster relief efforts of state, national, and local governments.
• Public Management magazine has also frequently covered disaster recovery, a topic of critical importance to all local governments. Check out these articles: "Disaster Recovery: Managers Part of the Solution", "After the Rescue Workers Go Home", and "Disaster Recovery: A Local Government Responsibility".
• See also ICMA’s extensive toolkit on integrating 311 into disaster response and recovery, featuring articles, interviews, and best practices for communities wanting to make the best use of their 311 system before, during, and after an emergency or disaster. It’s available here.

For additional resources, please visit the Knowledge Network’s Disaster Recovery and Emergency Management  topic pages.