When flooding swept a father through a drainage tube and killed him in DeSoto, Missouri, horrified resident Susan Liley knew she had to take action to protect local families. 

“At first we thought it was a fluke,” Liley said. “Then the flooding started happening one right after the other. We had four floods in three years.”

Liley said that the toll has been serious in DeSoto, including multiple deaths to community elders, damage to local infrastructure, and difficulties with first responders reaching her rural neighbors in danger. She went to work, organizing her neighbors to form the Citizens Committee for Flood Relief.

After years of frustration, Liley and her community took action, “We know just what it takes. We’re doing what it takes — working together and helping each other. That’s the definition of helping ourselves.”

Liley and the hardworking local committee turned to a funding source they knew they could access on their own: federal grants. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)’s NFWF funds competitive projects that “sustain, restore and enhance our nation’s fish, wildlife and plants, and their habitats.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received $250 million in new funding under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) for significant climate and conservation projects like the restoration work in DeSoto. 

Liley’s goal was to map, plan, and implement flood mitigation strategies in a local park — reducing damage and making their town more resilient to future shocks. They turned to local non-profits for support, the Anthropocene Alliance and Buy In Community Planning among other groups. 

“We got a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant to dig out a pond, and we planted seven acres of prairie to collect some of the water during high rain and save the town,” Liley said. “So that’s probably the one proudest thing I’ve ever did. Getting that pond stocked with fish has been just an amazing experience.”

Implementing the grant drew upon multiple generations of De Soto history; the land for the park was donated to the city by a Jewish immigrant from Germany who came to the area in the 1930s. “He was my children’s science teacher in school,” Liley said.

After implementing conservation-based flood mitigation strategies funded through federal grants, the town can feel the difference. “The last few times that we have flooded, it has made a difference,” Liley said. “We’ve been at evacuation level three times this year, and we never did flood, but we did close to eight feet where the police start going and knocking on doors to let people know that evacuation might be necessary.”

Part of Liley’s vision is for DeSoto to mitigate floods using conservation strategies. 

“The city of DeSoto has an old shoe factory, and we’d like them to dig that foundation out and make more ponds, more fishing lakes, more biking paths that connect our parks together,” Liley said. “But that takes money — we’re talking big money.” 

Liley and her organization have worked with other federal investments to contribute back to their town. They participate in numerous local planning and flood mitigation working groups with state and federal agencies. They also actively educate elected officials on the need for additional flood mitigation resources. 

Citizens Committee for Flood Relief has also been approved for a pending Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to buy out homes that frequently flood. Liley hopes restoring the properties would lead to even more local public space and parks that reduce flood damage.

FEMA’s two Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs (Flood Mitigation Assistance and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) received record funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly called the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).” President Biden signed the package of infrastructure investments into law on November 15, 2021. BIL contains tens of billions in federal funding for rural infrastructure, disaster assistance, high-speed internet, and more.