Flooding in southwest Iowa has kept people out of their homes for two weeks now. Some families have been settling in at campground sites.
Ten families have been staying in RVs at Waubonsie State Park in Fremont County, as historic flooding continues to devastate the area.
Hamburg Community Schools and local churches have been coordinating the effort. They’ve been feeding hot meals and doing laundry for evacuees at the campsite. Mike Wells, the school district’s superintendent, says even the students are pitching in.
“Our kids are serving coffee to patrons who are here to receive services, eating lunch with them and sharing and just showing a little bit of love and support for them because it’s just truly, truly a sad situation,” Wells said. “People who had very little to begin with truly lost everything they had.”
Well said this is a tough time, but these are tough people.
“The attitude here is this town isn’t done. We’re going to come back stronger, we’re going to come back better,” Wells said.
Other people have reserved the campgrounds at the state park this season, so flood victims will have to move somewhere else in the next few days. Wells says Sidney Rodeo, an arena, has opened its campgrounds and offered sites to people who need a place to stay.
Wells says the community is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 100 trailers, so more people have places to stay instead of leaving the school system. As about half of Hamburg had to evacuate, about half of the district’s students are displaced or mislocated.
The community is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 100 trailers, so more people have a place to stay instead of leaving the school system.
“Once they move away it’s hard to get people to come back to the community," Wells said. "So we want to support those people, we want to provide them a decent place to live and surround them with the kind of love and support that they need during these times.”
