Hurricanes slow flood recovery in northeast Iowa

ALLISON - The trio of hurricanes - Harvey, Irma and Maria - have wreaked havoc and left behind a mess in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

But some northeast Iowans believe the recent devastation is pulling attention away from the recovery of northeast Iowa cities hit hard by record flooding in September 2016.

'I think they kind of feel forgotten. Especially with the hurricanes and everything, that we've been forgotten,” Clarksville Mayor Val Swinton said. 'Because we're a small town, we kind of feel like we're not important. That's a little frustrating.”

'That's a lot frustrating,” U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, responded.

Ernst, a first-term senator, asked for a meeting Monday to hear an update on recovery efforts, a little more than a year after the cities of Clarksville, Greene and Shell Rock - northwest of Waterloo - suffered their second 'flood to end all floods” in eight years.

Ernst assured officials and residents federal funds have been obligated for home buyouts and would not be rerouted to hurricane recovery.

But Ernst shared the frustration of some residents that no buyouts have been completed. She promised to follow up with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to see why the process is taking so long.

Frustration was the theme through the hourlong meeting. About 270 homes were damaged by flooding along the Shell Rock River after Butler County received 12 inches of rain in a short period of time.

Mitch Nordmeyer, Butler County's emergency management coordinator, said many areas in the county saw higher flood levels than in 2008, a year of historic flooding in Iowa.

About 20 homes in Butler County qualified for a buyout. Their owners have submitted paperwork to FEMA but may have to wait another three to four months for the check, Ernst was told.

Nordmeyer and Brian Schoon, of the Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments, told Ernst the slow process and changes have been frustrating, as well as working with different federal officials every few weeks.

Their frustration grew recently when they found FEMA Region 7 officials had been sent to help in the Southeast.

Ernst said after the meeting that it's important that FEMA have uniform rules and regulations.

'We saw widespread devastation throughout the Southeast, and I do understand that,” she said. 'But, again, we have ongoing recovery efforts right here in Region 7 of FEMA. We have to make sure these families are getting what was told to them they would get,” she said. 'It's important that they close these actions out before they are jumping into other situations.”