Telling a story entirely from public records requests can be a slow process. First, you have to frame your question in such a way that you can make a formal request for records. Then you have to locate the public body that has responsibility for maintaining those records. It's possible, though not always true, that the record you are requesting does not exist yet, but will be created upon your request in order to comply with internal policies or regulations.

I'm telling you this in the context of the flooding in Ann Arbor on Aug. 11, when a violent rainstorm sent an as of yet undetermined amount of water from the skies into a relatively small part of Ann Arbor. This caused flooding in Allen Creek and geysers of stormwater to explode into the air. 

I'm looking for the paper trail for this flood. I have spent 5 cents so far to get one record, the account of a female trapped in her car. 

There are more Freedom of Information Act requests to make regarding what happened this day, but before I spend another nickel from my budget I need to get a concise story of what actually happened at 1:48 p.m. on Huron Street.

Flooding FOIA

I wrote last week about asking for records associated with the flooding of Aug. 11. I walked around the affected area, I talked to people and I made maps. I also received my record request from the city. It has two lines:

"401 E Huron St. 13:48:35 FEMALE TRAPPING IN HER VEH IN THE FLOOD - WHI 95 CADI - CALLER IS PANICKING. NO WATER IN VEH YET BUT SHE IS "FLOATING"."

This is helpful in the sense that I now have a call for service number from the city, and can talk to individuals at the police department with a specific reference number so that they can index back to the specific 911 dispatch call. It's informative, because it gives me some names, but not enough to make a call to the person involved. It's relevant, because if you have a person at City Hall who is familiar with calls for service during these kinds of storms, you can ask them if it's typical for Cadillacs to float down the road.

I sent another request in, asking for the UD-10 accident report for the event. I wrote about requestiong UD-10 reports for accidents previously; you can get a bunch of very detailed information slowly. If you are looking at doing retrospective accident analysis, Michigan Traffic Crash Facts is great for ready access to data, but if you want something this year, you have to ask directly.

I'm expecting that there should be a UD-10 issued, since the street in question is a state trunk highway, and since it should be something that more than one person should know about it happening. I don't know how to read a UD-10 enough to run a report that says "show me all accidents related to flooding." That may not be possible without a lot of work.

Impossible questions

The broader question which I posed last week was this unanswerable one:

"Please provide a copy of all records held by the Ann Arbor Police Department relating to the flood of August 11, 2010."

Or even more broadly:

"Please provide a copy of all records held by any public authority relating to the flood of August 11, 2010."

The search process was first a broad search, which took me chasing around Ann Arbor City Hall and calling to Washtenaw County Water Resources. So who might know something about flooding? Let me make a list.

City of Ann Arbor

• Police department, in the case of any rescues or calls for service or other dispatch for people in trouble like this floating Cadillac.
• Police records, because most FOIA Friday stories start with a FOIA request.
• Parks departments, for any of the parkland that has dual use as stormwater detention, or that is in the floodplain or the floodway; more specifically, the work ongoing in West Park.
• Stormwater management, for monitoring of the Allen Creek Drain, sampling of water quality and other issues regarding design, as well as plots and maps of locations of backup drains and modeling of the stormwater system. This is in the systems planning unit.
• Communications, for messaging to the public like "Turn Around Don't Drown" and "don't bathe in dirty water," and general discussion about where to go next and who does what at the city.
• Board of Insurance Administration, for handling of claims from the public for damage to their property due to action or inaction by the city.
• Historic District Commission, for historical records associated with old buildings in the floodplain and floodway and their original use as well as the original and subsequent layout of roads, streets and streams.
• Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, because some of the flooding happened within the boundaries of the Downtown Development Authority district, including a manhole cover that popped open in the 415 E. Washington St. parking lot.
• Ann Arbor Farmers Market, because there might reasonably be a weather station at the market that would tell you what rainfall was downtown, and because you can learn a lot about the local weather talking to farmers.
• City Attorney's office, for the inevitable review of FOIA requests, and requests to have a standard FOIA process take less time than it inevitably does; it's maddening to wait a week to spend a nickel to get a page of paper, after having been notified by first class mail that my request was ready to pick up.

Did I miss anyone? I'm sure I did, since this is just city resources and not county resources to look at.

Edward Vielmetti is slowly but surely visiting every single floor of Ann Arbor City Hall. Contact him at 734-330-2465.