As 2007 winds down and the state prepares to flip the page to a new calendar, emergency management officials are hoping the new year is a little calmer. State Emergency Management Division Director, David Miller, says there were four federal disasters declarations in the past year, and the latest one is still pending.
Miller says for awhile the state average two a year, with spring flooding and fall flooding, but this year has been "extraordinary." Miller says the dollar amount of damage was part of the extraordinary aspect of the storms, with much of the damage coming to the rural coops. The damage along from the ice storms early in the year was 80-million dollars for the co-ops and Miller says there was millions more to the other utilities.
Miller wouldn’t mind a slower pace in 2008. He says it’s been a "substantial" year with the snowstorm that followed the ice storm early on, then a couple of floods and some events that didn’t end up getting federal disaster declarations. To find out more about preparing for possible disasters in Iowa, visit the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division website.