Lake Delhi set to get millions for flood recovery

More than $4.5 million in federal and state disaster recovery funds are in the final approval stage for the Lake Delhi Recreation Association.

The money is part of the effort to help rebuild infrastructure after last year's floods, Gov. Chet Culver and Rep. Bruce Braley said Thursday in announcing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state funding package.

The Lake Delhi Recreation Area in Delaware County will use the $4,596,405 to remove silt and sediments deposited in the lake by the floods.

Culver and Braley prevailed in their efforts to have FEMA pay 90 percent of the cost with state funds making up the remaining 10 percent, in effect eliminating the recreation area's local match of $689,460.

Association President Jim Willey said the funds would not have been approved if the association had not just completed a well-documented and extensive dredging project in 2005.

The project is among an expected 12,500 projects that will be identified under the State/FEMA Public Assistance Program designed to help public and certain non-profit agencies rebuild Iowa infrastructure and pay for response efforts.

To date, the state and FEMA have obligated more than $641 million for public assistance projects in Iowa.