CHEROKEE, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — Iowa state officials traveled across the northwest part of the state Monday to talk about the flooding.
Governor Kim Reynolds, Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg, Representative Randy Feenstra, and other officials visited the city of Cherokee. County and city officials met with them at the Cherokee Fire Station to discuss what they’ve done so far.
The governor said the damage from the flooding is devastating to see. She added that this is unprecedented and that she has “never seen floods like this before.”
Reynolds spoke with Iowa Media Wire 9 about what the state of Iowa is doing to help out Sioux City.
“High water vehicles from the guard, we sent those up to Sioux City,” she said. “We’ve been monitoring that all night. They thought they were potentially going to have to do an evacuation. I don’t think they had to do that, so they’ve been monitoring that very closely. You know, as the water continues to move down the state and into the Missouri [River], today I added five counties along the Missouri River to the state disaster declaration, kind of preempted, so that they can be ready to deal with that.”
Representative Feenstra said the emergency declaration the governor created was sent to Washington D.C. federal assistance could be coming to Iowa soon.
“Got a call from Secretary Mayorkas this morning that said ‘hey, we’re going to get the president to sign it in the next 24 hours,’ Feenstra said. “That’s massive. That gets the FEMA funds started for all these different areas and all these different issues. That starts the rebuilding and, you know, getting things cleaned up and everything. So, again, it’s awesome we’re all working together collaboratively.”
Officials also visited Hawarden, Rock Valley, Rock Rapids and Spencer on Monday.