The U.S. Ag Secretary has approved disaster declarations for 25 Iowa counties from damage suffered in severe storms, hail, and flooding between August first through the ninth. Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division administrator, David Miller, says there was other damage in the storms.
Miller says after every disaster they do a damage assessment and look at damage to individuals and families, damages to businesses and public infrastructure, and damages to agriculture. He says they accumulate all the information and it may warrant doing a joint assessment with FEMA. The results of the assessment found the damage to crops was the worst.
Miller says they found out there wasn’t enough damage to ask for an S.B.A. designation to help families and businesses, and there wasn’t enough damage to ask for a presidential designation for public infrastructure. Agriculture was the only area where there was enough damage to request the disaster declaration.
Calhoun, Grundy, Hamilton, Hardin, Ida, Sac, Webster and Woodbury were declared the primary natural disaster areas. Nearby counties also included in the disaster declaration are: Black Hawk, Boone, Buena Vista, Butler, Carroll, Cherokee, Crawford, Franklin, Greene, Humboldt, Marshall, Monona, Plymouth, Pocahontas, Story, Tama and Wright. Miller says the approval of the designation will give producers some options.
He says they will be able to sign up for low-interest loan programs from the Farm Services Agency for the hail damage. The Farm Service Agency considers each application on its own merit by taking into account the extent of losses, security available, and repayment ability. Local F.S.A. offices will have information on the program.