The 23 Disaster Recovery Centers across the state will be closed Friday for the Fourth of July holiday. Brett Voorhees of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division says the centers in Delaware, Story and Tama County will not reopen after the holiday.
Voorhees says the Disaster Recovery Centers are a great place for people to go and talk face-to-face with state and federal people about assistance programs, and as the interest and the number of people coming into the center changes, the centers are closed, and new centers are opened. Six new centers opened up Monday in Adams, Cedar, Delaware, Hardin, Wapello and Winneshiek County.
Voorhees says the recovery centers are the second step in the process of recovery. He says the first step is to register with the FEMA hotline, and you will get a registration number that you can bring to the recovery center. Voorhees says the centers provide a variety of information and the staff helps answer many questions.
Voorhees says you can sign up for additional information on FEMA programs, state unemployment and food stamps, and the Small Business Administration representatives can also talk about low interest loans. The Disaster Recovery Centers that aren’t closing for good will re-open on Saturday July 5th. To find a Disaster Recovery Center in your area, check the FEMA website , or the Iowa Homeland Security website.