The wide scope of Iowa’s flooding disaster covers more than three-quarters of the state, so police and county sheriff’s departments are stretched thin. Iowa law enforcement officials have called for help from Minnesota and Nebraska.
Colonel Bryan Tuma is superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol and says at least 20 troopers are enroute to Iowa. Tuma says the Nebraska patrolmen will help with things like traffic control and security issues. The floodwaters are receding now and he says as people try to get back into their neighborhoods, law officers will help with those efforts.
He expects the mission to last about a week and Tuma says neighboring states do answer this sort of call, occasionally. "The Iowa authorities are making a request for outside assistance because they’ve simply overwhelmed their available resources, so Nebraska will be sending some additional officers over there to supplement the available law enforcement services currently working the situation," Tuma says.
The out-of-state agencies will be reimbursed by Iowa for the officers who help out.