The following is a statement direct from O’Brien County Emergency Manager Jared Johnson:
Hello Everyone,
We appreciate all of the work that you are doing and your patience during this difficult time. The amount of work that is going on throughout this region is immense. Thank you for what you are doing to help each other out. Please continue to check on your neighbors to see how they are doing.
I want to give you some awareness of assistance programs, and I am going to be honest with you. I am worried that assistance may be very limited. Right now, Iowa has approved the activation of the Iowa Individual Disaster Assistance Program and the Disaster Case Advocacy Program. I will include a link for those programs below. The income threshold information is included in the page. Some individuals will not qualify due to the income threshold.
The Governor signed an expedited Presidential Disaster Declaration yesterday. If this gets approved, we will be sending out more information over the programs activated.
I have received questions over when FEMA is coming. If federal assistance is activated, the recovery will be weeks/months out.
Resources are being exhausted throughout the area due to the widespread damages throughout NW Iowa. We need to do what we can on our own.
Please reach out to your insurance provider to see if any of your damages are covered by insurance. Please take plenty of photos of the damage. Unfortunately, many of the damages may not be covered by insurance.
I am sorry that I don’t have better news for you at this time.
If you want to help in some way, please start thinking about what you can do to help. (This may be financial donations, helping with cleaning, donated supplies that are needed). Some areas are still in response. Some areas may post online what resources are needed. We have counties around us with many destroyed homes and many homeless individuals. Multiple communities will be working on finding temporary housing for people (this will take time.) There are limited rentals / homes available.
If your neighbors need help or you need help, please talk with each other to see what you can do to help each other out in the cleaning recovery. The weather will be getting warmer.
Please continue to monitor your local city’s social media pages and website for city updates.
Please be cautious while cleaning. If you have sewage and/ or mold starting to grow in the flooded area, I would recommend wearing an N95 mask while cleaning. I am working with O’Brien County Public Health to have different locations where N95 masks may be picked up. In a previous post, I have some information over cleaning ‘mold.’
Please maintain awareness over hydrostatic pressure (involving basement walls). With the water flowing in around basements due to the heavy ground saturation, there can be heavy pressure against the walls of the basement. Please be careful while you are removing water from your home.
Thank you to everyone who has been helping during this response! There are thousands impacted throughout NW Iowa.
Don’t give up! Please continue to pray and help each other out the best that you can. Thank you!
https://homelandsecurity.iowa.gov/disasters/individual-disaster-assistance-programs
