It was five years ago this week that a flood devastated the northwestern Iowa town of Hornick and the final repairs still aren’t complete.
The West Branch of the Little Sioux River couldn’t be held back by a levee after a late winter rainstorm, and the high water forced the evacuation of all 250 residents in the Woodbury County community.
“It’s been a long road to recovery,” according to Hornick Mayor Scott Mitchell, who says a new berm now protects the town.
Mitchell says it’s difficult to finalize funding from FEMA to fix roads that were damaged by the flood. The cost has increased in the past two years from $2-million dollars to as much as $4-million, with FEMA covering 75% of the price.
The mayor says the paperwork was a real chore. “Their process is very difficult for a small town to do,” he says. “We don’t have anybody to do that on a full-time basis, where your larger cities do.”
Mitchell says it’s been a difficult journey to put everything back in place.
“Lots of ups and downs, maybe more downs than ups,” he says. “And it’s still pretty amazing how a community and the surrounding areas can come together to help out a small community that they don’t even have any ties to.”
Mitchell says he is still thankful for the support his town received in cleaning up after the natural disaster. He hopes to have the final repair work done by the end of this year.
(By Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio)