Flood Damage in the United States, 1926-2003
A Reanalysis of National Weather Service Estimates

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Global Programs (NOAA-OGP), Award No. NA96GP0451, with the able assistance of Bill Murray, Caitlin Simpson, and Rick Lawford. Additional support was provided by the U.S. Weather Research Program. The authors are particularly grateful for the assistance of Frank Richards and Joanna Dionne of the National Weather Service (NWS) Hydrologic Information Center and other NWS staff including Paul Polger and John Ogren (Silver Spring, MD) and Robert Glancy and Frank Cooper (Denver, CO).

Valuable assistance and comments were received from David Wingerd, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Stan Changnon and Ken Kunkel, Illinois State Water Survey; Bill Cappuccio, National Flood Insurance Program (Iowa); Lisa Flax, National Ocean Service; Jacki Monday, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center; Kathleen Miller, National Center for Atmospheric Research; and Tom Grazulis, The Tornado Project.

Many state emergency management agencies provided information for this study. We are especially grateful to Michael Sabbaghian, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, for providing data and assistance related to the California 1998 El Niño disaster. Information was also provided by:

• Lee Helms, Alabama Emergency Management Agency
• Karma Hackney, Dana Owens, and Tom Mullins, California Governor's Office of Emergency Services
• Larry Lang, Colorado Water Conservation Board
• Yusuf Mustafa, Florida Division of Emergency Management
• Shirley Collins, Florida Bureau of Recovery and Mitigation, Dept. of Community Affairs
• Gary McConnell, Georgia Emergency Management Agency
• Edward Teixeira, Hawaii State Department of Defense
• Robert Sherman, Illinois Emergency Management Agency
• Phil Roberts, Indiana State Emergency Management Agency
• David Eash, Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources
• Art Jones, Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness
• Stephen J. McGrail, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency
• Doran Duckworth, Michigan Dept. of State Police, Emergency Management Division
• Sherrill Neudahl, Minnesota Dept. of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management
• Glenn Schafer and Stuart Shelstad, Minnesota Farm Service Agency
• Chuck May, Missouri State Emergency Management Agency
• Kay Phillips, Ohio Emergency Management Agency, Response and Recovery Branch
• Dennis Sigrist, Oregon Emergency Management Agency
• John Knight, South Carolina Emergency Preparedness Division
• Joan Peschke, Texas Emergency Management, Recovery Section
• Michael Cline and Harry Colestock, Virginia Dept. of Emergency Services
• Chuck Hagerhjelm and Terry Simmonds, Washington State Military Dept., Emergency Management Division
• John Pack, West Virginia Dept. of Military Affairs and Public Safety, Emergency Services
• Robert J. Bezek, Wyoming Emergency Management Agency

Much assistance was provided by librarians at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, CO, and the staff of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers library at Fort Belvoir, VA.

Finally, special thanks to Jennifer Oxelson for constructing the website, to Roberta Klein for helpful comments on the manuscript, and to D. Jan Stewart, Anne Oman, and Jan Hopper for preparing the report for publication.