Flooded buildings along the Missouri River.
Even after this long year of drought, many residents in southwest Iowa are still recovering from last year’s record flooding of the Missouri River.
A meeting this afternoon in Fremont County aims to update residents on the rebuilding process.
Lori McDaniel, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says they’ll cover a lot of topics.
“Just about flood plain management in general, how the Corps of Engineers and I-DNR can help and provide technical assistance in terms of flood plain management and projects that need to be done in the flood plain,” McDaniel says.
“We plan to bring our engineers so we can provide some one-on-one assistance.” She says the goal is to keep the public in the region informed about the progress. McDaniel says, “We just want to be available to answer any questions that may come up so we can all make good decisions moving into the future.”
The prolonged flooding in 2011 wiped out dozens of homes and businesses and hundreds of acres of farmland in the Missouri River corridor. McDaniel says the many southwest Iowa residents still have questions about how to proceed.
“Mostly about how we do our approval processes and the tools we can use to help people know where to build and how to make informed decisions of what’s going on in that area,” McDaniel says. “Also, sand and silt deposition has been a big question, can I push my sand and silt and fill in an eroded river bank, questions like that.”
Today’s meeting is scheduled to run from 1:30 to 3:30 at the Waubonsie State Park lodge near Hamburg.
By Mike Peterson, KMA, Shenandoah