© 2024 WVIK
Listen at 90.3 FM and 98.3 FM in the Quad Cities, 95.9 FM in Dubuque, or on the WVIK app!
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Government

Gallagher in NYC for Climate Week

Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher speaks at a panel at Climate Week NYC.

Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher is spending this week in the Big Apple.

Climate Week meetings are underway in New York City, and Gallagher is there representing the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, as its co-chair.

The mayor says he is attending the meetings to work on resiliency projects for when the Mississippi River floods.

"We're meeting with partners who might be able to provide some funding for those initiatives, building partnerships with other non-profits who can put us in touch with funding and resources to help us achieve those goals."

The Cities and Towns Initiative is working with a variety of organizations including the Columbia University Water Center. Gallagher says mayors up and down the Mississippi are working together to create a more adaptable river.

"We need to work together to find the resources to help make the river more resilient, to use data that can help predict the disasters of the future, and make sure that we scale our projects for the entire Mississippi River basin so that all those effected communities are helped by this work."

He says from 2005 to 2019, the Mississippi River Valley sustained over $200 billion dollars worth of damage from flooding and other disasters.