(Radio Iowa) – Davenport is preparing for flooding along the nine-miles of Mississippi River that runs along the city. City officials say they learned from 2019 when the single line of HESCO barriers holding back the flood waters gave out and water rushed into a three-block section of downtown. Public Works Director, Nicole Gleason says this year’s barrier is two high and two wide and reinforced along its length with triple the sand.

“With the current setup I’m very confident. The one thing you can’t be confident in is the rain. So as long as the rain comes in as forecasted, I feel very highly confident in this set up,” Gleason says. Gleason says this barrier could take on a 22-foot flood, a similar scale to 2019. Davenport, Mayor Mike Matson stood next to the temporary floodwall in downtown Monday and says the city learned its lesson from that 2019 record flood.

“We rehearsed we pre-position we practice and set this wall up in two and a half days and then the pumps are in place the core is with us the E-M-A is with us, we’re all ready to go,” he says. Matson says this year’s wall is based on what they found from the 2019 failure.

“A lot of the questions, how big? Well now it’s bigger. We made sure whatever was connected and where the break was that we reinforced. So all of those things are in play here. Confident? We’ll see what happens, right?,” Matson says. Governor Kim Reynolds issued a state disaster proclamation Monday for the ten counties along the Mississippi River as they prepare for the flooding.

The governor’s declaration allows local governments to use state resources at no cost to prepare and respond.