Three months after record-breaking flooding in Siouxland, residents say the recovery process is still ongoing.
Jeanne Derby’s home in the Riverside neighborhood of Sioux City was substantially damaged when the Big Sioux River poured out of its banks.
Even though it will still take some time before Derby can move back in, she is thankful for help from the federal government, the state, and local organizations.
“The community came together when I didn't have clothes people dropped clothes off, people dropped shoes off, people I didn't know showed up to help tear my walls off. It was amazing,” Derby said Thursday.
Deanna Mercure was also forced from her home.
“It was rough, and it still is. It's been the longest three months of my life. I was just devastated, thinking, what am I going to do? I don't want to leave this house. And just all fell in place with everybody that stepped up," Mercure said.
Mercure said she received $26,000 from FEMA to help with home repairs and is hoping to secure another $50,000 in state funding. However, she admits that isn’t enough and she needed to take out a home equity loan.
The two women made their comments during a Thursday news conference with local organizations that have also helped flood victims.
A local Long Term Recovery Group was formed to help flood victims connect with much-needed services.
So far, FEMA has approved more than $3 million for 325 households in Woodbury County.
The deadline to apply for individual assistance from FEMA ends on October 22nd for Woodbury and several other Iowa counties impacted by natural disasters this summer.
*Additionally, the Iowa Democratic Party had to resend absentee ballot request forms to about 36,000 voters this month.
The shape of the original forms prevented them from being automatically processed by the postal service.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart says it’s an issue she’s confident the party is resolving.
“There was a change in postal regulations that took our vendor by surprise. And so those absentee ballot requests have been sent out again and we have worked with our county auditors across the state to resolve that issue. So we are confident that we can resolve all the concerns around that,” Hart said.
A Democratic Party spokesperson said the party received a call on September 9th that there was a problem with the shape of the ballot request form. The IDP’s mail vendor then found the form they’d used for years could no longer be processed by postal service machines.
The IDP says they sent new forms to the same voters on September 17th, along with information urging them to submit a new request in case their first wasn’t processed.
More than 21,000 voters in that group have submitted ballot requests, according to the IDP.
*Additionally, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird on Thursday announced a lawsuit against Global Fiberglass Solutions and its executives for violations of Iowa’s solid waste laws.
In a release, Bird said GFS failed to properly dispose of decommissioned wind turbine blades that were stockpiled at three sites in Iowa.
She said GFS in 2017 contracted for and was paid millions of dollars by two major wind-turbine companies to cut up, transport, and recycle the blades.
Instead, GFS reportedly let about 1,300 blades sit in stockpiles for years at the three sites in Ellsworth, Newton, and Atlantic, Iowa. GFS failed to recycle the blades even after the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued orders calling for cleanup.
Attorney General Bird is seeking civil penalties from Global Fiberglass Solutions, as a way to hold them accountable for the blades that presented an environmental risk.
*In other news, a report from the state auditor’s office today found the city of Hamburg in southwestern Iowa mishandled state money issued after major flooding in 2019.
State Auditor Rob Sand says the city violated Iowa law by giving away city property to private citizens, including a house transferred to the daughter of a city council member. The city also issued an unauthorized payment of $50,000 to its economic development council.
Sand says his office started a special investigation after receiving whistleblower complaints.
“This was not a routine review. We had numerous legally qualifying requests come in from the city of Hamburg,” Sand said.
Sand says it's up to the Iowa Economic Development Authority to decide the next steps and any possible penalties for the city.
