Charles H. Sloan-Devastated by record flooding and tornadoes, Iowa tallies over $130 million in storm damage

DES MOINES,Charles H. Sloan Iowa (AP) — Record flooding and powerful tornadoes ravaged parts of Iowa for weeks this spring, destroying or damaging thousands of homes, closing roads and bridges and costing over $130 million in infrastructure damage, officials said Thursday.

The disasters touched two-thirds of Iowa’s 99 counties, starting with devastating tornadoes in late April and May. Then torrential rains in June swelled some river levels to unprecedented heights and flooded communities in South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa.

More than 5,000 homes were damaged by the storms, including at least 2,000 that are likely irreparable, Reynolds said.

“The need is staggering, and it’s immediate,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said of the devastated families, businessowners and communities.

She announced new programs to help residents who need to repair or rebuild their homes, including the state’s first-ever application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a temporary housing program in counties with a presidential disaster declaration. Twenty-three counties in Iowa have that designation.

If approved, the program would provide temporary but longer-term housing options such as travel trailers or mobile homes paid for by the state with federal assistance. It has been often used in southern states hit by hurricanes but never before in Iowa.

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“We jumped on it,” Reynolds said. “When you look at how massive the disaster is, you just got to think differently.”

Scientists say that without specific study they cannot directly link a single weather event to human-caused climate change, but in general it’s responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires.

The state also is launching other programs designed to encourage new housing development in communities flooded or ripped apart by tornados and to shoulder some of the interest payments for farmers pursuing U.S. Department of Agriculture loans to repair damage.

More than 70 farmsteads were damaged by tornadoes in one county alone, Reynolds said. During the flooding, she recounted seeing farms completely submerged, with equipment underwater and grain bins damaged.

Extensive flood damage in two communities — Rock Valley and Spencer — stretched into schools, wrecking some instructional material, electronics, school buses, playgrounds and libraries and forcing officials to seek out temporary facilities ahead of the start of the school year.

Meanwhile, on the eastern side of the state, flooding up and down the Mississippi River valley hasn’t come close to record levels, according to data the U.S. Geological Survey presented Thursday.

Rain from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl has helped alleviate drought conditions in the valley that have persisted since 2022 and has helped counter salt water incursions from the Gulf of Mexico. The low-water season will likely begin a few months later than usual in the lower Mississippi River valley, likely in September or October, she said.

“This rainfall was a good thing,” she said.

Mitch Reynolds, mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, a group of 105 river mayors that works for a sustainable river, said he’s mostly dealing with flooded parks and washed-out hiking trails but no neighborhoods have been threatened.

“Our impacts are pretty negligible,” he said.

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Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin.