The governor has declared Bremer, Blackhawk and Louisa Counties in eastern Iowa state disaster areas due to flooding. Emergency Management Division director, David Miller, says the designation allowed the state to give them help.
Miller says those counties were getting pumps and sandbags from the Corps of Engineers and the D-O-T was used to transfer the equipment. He says there are other counties that are fighting flood waters, but haven’t yet asked for state help.
Miller says the flood fight is starting to ease in some areas, such as Denver in Black Hawk County, where they returned pumps to the Corps of Engineers today. But, Miller says it’s an ongoing problem. He says they’e concerned a little about rain later this week and the impact that could have. Miller says the crests are moving downstream from Denver and Black Hawk County down to Vinton and Anamosa. He says the flow will continue down to Davenport and Burlington as it flows on into the Mississippi.
Miller says his agency is keeping close contact with the National Weather Service to try and gauge the impact as the water moves downstream. Miller says each morning they do a conference call with the weather service and the counties and to look at stream and river projections. He says the good news is that water flows have been a little lower than projected — although there’s still flooding.
Miller says several homes and businesses have already been hit by flooding. He says a number of families have been impacted and people hit by flooding should work with their county emergency management coordinators. Miller says the state has the individual assistance program for low-income residents hit by the flooding, and he says you should work with human services on that program.
Miller says its too early to tell a dollar amount of damage yet. Miller says they’ll work with county coordinators as the flood waters go down to assess the damage and determine where they go from here. The governor was already scheduled to be in eastern Iowa today, and will be touring flood damage in Davenport.