Pottawattamie County faced a deadly tornado outbreak in April that heavily damaged the town of Minden and killed one person. In May, the northern part of the county experienced hail, wind and flash flooding — followed by major flooding in late June.
“Missouri River flooding impacted a lot of our properties and land along the river that resulted in our third federally declared disaster for the year,” Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Director Doug Reed said. “Just on public infrastructure damages, we're probably around the $4-5 million mark for our county.”
Time is running out for individuals in Pottawattamie and 15 other Iowa counties to apply for assistance for the most recent natural disaster. The deadline is Oct. 22 at 11:59 p.m.
“Everybody wants to come in and help immediately in the emergency, and then, you know, after a fairly short time, everybody goes back home, you know. It's here, and then it's gone, but people still have needs,” Reed said. "In the whole spectrum of disasters, I think the most difficult part of it is the recovery for the individual as well as the community."
Help and setbacks
According to Reed, so far FEMA approved $1.2 million in individual assistance in Pottawattamie County. The Small Business Administration also provided $660,000 in low-interest loans to homeowners.
“A problem that we saw with people applying for FEMA and getting their initial letter that, on face value, indicated they were denied, but really it was because they didn't have their insurance settled,” Reed said. “So that had to be taken care of first, and that led to a lot of assumptions and frustration.”
Reed said getting insurance adjusters into Minden was difficult, especially with other areas of the state and country seeing catastrophic weather events. In his 20 years working in emergency services, he admitted this year has been the most trying.
“We have certainly had this kind of weather, but just not back-to-back. It’s the most active severe weather season with impacts since my time here,” Reed said. "You know, we are now beefed up at least as far as our preparedness locally."
There is no conclusive link between climate change and tornadoes, but there is a connection with floods that are growing more frequent and severe in most of the United States because of more extreme precipitation.
“At the end of the day, we just need to be prepared for the next one,” Reed said.
Other resources for storm victims
After the window for individual assistance with FEMA closes, a long-term disaster recovery center will continue to work with Pottawattamie County residents through all stages of recovery.
“Disaster case advocates can sit down and help people that still have ongoing or unmet needs, identify those needs, and then we work with them to get them matched up to the right service providers or funding mechanism to make that happen,” Reed added.
Some of that help also comes through the Southwest Iowa Emergency Relief Fund, with a focus on storm recovery in Minden. Reed said partnerships with state and federal agencies also help.
“There's nothing that'll make up for injuries and fatalities, but as a community, things are moving in the right direction,” Reed said. “I don't have any fears of what we see sometimes around the country, when a community is impacted like that, they just never come back. They lose people, they lose businesses — they just don't survive. I think Minden is going to come out strong."
Finding FEMA assistance
FEMA officials said that due to the extended wait times caused by recent catastrophic disasters in the south, it’s advised to sign up for assistance online instead of using the call center, and remember the estimated time to fill out an application is 20 minutes. And be prepared to submit the following information:
- The applicant and co-applicants social security numbers
- Total household income amount
- The names of all people living in the home at the time of the declaration
- Bank information (routing and account number) to allow for electronic deposits of disaster assistance.
