(The Center Square) – Iowa has been hit by three bouts of severe weather since April, affecting two-thirds of Iowa’s 99 counties and costing $130 million in damages, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday.
More help is on the way to meet what the governor called the “staggering and immediate” needs of residents who don’t know where they are going to live after their homes were damaged or destroyed.
Iowa officials looked toward their southern neighbors, Florida and Louisiana, that have weathered multiple hurricanes with a temporary housing program for six months that is free except for utilities, Reynolds said. It’s the state’s first application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a temporary housing program.
Residents living in counties with presidential disaster declarations are eligible, according to the governor.
“Housing units will vary and they will be anything from hotels, RVs, travel trailers and modular homes,” Reynolds said.
The program addresses gaps between immediate and long-term needs, John Benson, director of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said.
“As the governor has noted, we want to get them in there, get them safe, get them to their long-term solution, then they exit the program and they go on,” Benson said.
The storms hit farmers hard, with more than 70 farmsteads damaged in Shelby County alone during the April tornadoes, Reynolds said.
The loans offered by the United States Department of Agriculture had higher interests rates that loans offered by local banks or lenders and didn’t have the same benefits as Small Business Administration loans, Reynolds said.
“We are going to bring some parity to farmers by creating the Disaster Recovery Farm Interest Program,” Reynolds said. “This program actually buys down interest rates by reimbursing interest payments up to $50,000 per household over 12 months on commercial loans farmers will use to repair damage.”
The program, which opened Thursday, will be managed by the Iowa Finance Authority, according to the governor.
The storms also affected several schools.
“There are multiple school buildings impacted and we are working directly with those superintendent and those local school leaders who are working tirelessly day in and day out to restore the in-person learning environment as soon as possible,” Education Secretary McKenzie Snow said.
