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Iowa hopes federal government picks up more disaster costs

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By Charlotte Eby | Wednesday, July 02, 2008 |

DES MOINES — The federal government will pay 90 percent of the emergency response costs from flood and tornadoes incurred by state and local governments this spring, but Iowa officials hope they’ll pick up 100 percent of the cost.

Otherwise, the state of Iowa could end up shouldering 10 percent of the costs, which state officials say is too much.

“We appreciate the federal government’s assistance in helping Iowans recover from this year’s massive and historic natural disasters,” Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said in a statement. “However, we believe today’s announcement is only an interim step and only one piece of our request.”

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge said at the time the request for disaster assistance was submitted to the federal government, damage estimates were artificially low because rivers in some parts of the state had not yet crested.

She said they expected to submit additional information in the hope the federal government will reconsider.

“It’s still staggering, when you know the devastation, if you’ve been able to see the road damage in southern Iowa, just millions of millions of dollars of infrastructure that’s underwater,” Judge said.

If the federal government doesn’t pick up the full 100 percent, the state is likely to pay the 10 percent matching share for local governments, Judge said.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said considering the level of damage in Iowa, it would have been difficult for the state to pay 25 percent of the cost, which the federal government originally had proposed.

“I am grateful that these lowered matching funds will help our state begin moving ahead and working to rebuild,” Harkin said in a statement. “Over the past few weeks, I have seen a lot of the damage we have endured and look forward to working with the Bush administration and (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to continue to get the funds necessary to continue the recovery process and to broaden the reductions in the cost sharing requirements.”

Charlotte Eby can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.