State sends employees to help counterparts deal with Hurrican Isabel

The state of Iowa is sending some help to the east coast for the states hit by Hurricane Isabel. Kara Berg of the Iowa Emergency Management Division says the division’s public assistance officer, is heading to Delaware.She says he has vast experience in administration of public assistance programs that’re designed to help states in their disaster recovery efforts. Berg says Pat Hall’s trip to Delaware is part of an agreement in which the states swap help during disasters. Berg says another staff member from Iowa will head to Maryland to help them with their recovery efforts, and there could be more.She says other state agencies may be sending some people out to help with the administration of the recovery effort. Berg says the administrative help is all Iowa will send, as there’s not a need for any equipment at this point.She says they’re getting a lot of that help from surrounding states, and need the administrative help because the many hours it takes. Berg says many Iowans have called asking how they can help. She says they want to be very specific about the help sent to the states. She says they don’t want to send a lot of things to the states and create another disaster by having tons of supplies a state would have to deal with. Berg says if you are interested in helping, you should contact the disaster services departments of the individual states and see what type of aid is needed. You can call the following numbers to get information on each state. North Carolina, 1-888-835-9966; Virginia, 1-877-245-5513; District of Columbia, 202-727-1000