The Iowa House and Senate have approved the governor’s disaster response bill and Governor Reynolds said tonight that she looks forward to signing it into law when it gets to her desk.
The bill includes $11.6 million to help Iowans repair homes that were damaged by last year’s massive tornadoes and historic flooding, along with $2 million to help cities demolish damaged buildings. It puts $19 million in a revolving loan fund for projects that prepare for future floods, droughts, wildfires and severe storms.
Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids delivered an emotional speech about the bill late this afternoon. “This bill cannot wait,” she said. “Families, contractors, our local governmnets cannot wait for housing repairs and stability and we should not be blissfully ignorant that this won’t happen again.”
Jones and her family had driven into Spencer to help her parents as flood waters rose last June. Hours later they were evacuated by boat from the neighborhood in Spencer where Jones grew up. “We boated down city streets, dodging the tops of road signs,” she said. “The entire neighborhood was a lake.”
Senator Skyler Wheeler of Hull said he has “a horrible memory,” but he remembers “every single detail” about the night the flooding hit – and the aftermath in communities like Rock Valley.
“When you see this with your own eyes and you experience it, it hits,” Wheeler said. “I don’t think we’re going to avoid natural disasters…but I do hope that we can at least ensure in the future we can get the folks the financial relief that they need to be able to rebuild their houses, their communities, their schools — whatever it might be.”
Representative Ray “Bubba” Sorenson is from Greenfield, the community hit by a powerful tornado on May 21. “This bill represents a proactive approach to disaster management, investing in our communities’ resilience and ensuring that we are better prepared for the challenges posed by natural disasters,” Sorenson said during House debate. “My hometown of Greenfield was hit hard — the fastest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth, over 100 homes flattened to their foundations in less than a minute, people ripped from their basement. We lost lives and many more will never be made whole again, but we are rebuilding.”
The bill gives Governor Reynolds and all future Iowa governors authority to withdraw up to 10% of the funds in the state’s Economic Emergency Fund, to deal with natural disasters that occur when the legislature’s not in session. The bill also creates what Governor Reynolds described as “fraud protection” by creating new state licensing rules for some of the people involved in the insurance claims process.
The bill passed the Senate 47-0 on Wednesday with little debate. it passed the House today on a 91-1 vote. Representative Mark Cisneros of Muscatine was the lone “no” vote and eight other House members were listed as absent or not voting.