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Preventing flood damage beforehand is better than emergency relief after the disaster, said a national floodplain expert at the Upper Mississippi River Conference according to the Quad-City Times. "If your community is going to be resilient, you need to plan for a larger event," said Larry Larson, the executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. "If we were to spend more on mitigation up front, instead of disaster relief, we’d be better off."