Three Months Since Tornadoes and Floods Devastated Iowa

It has been three months since Mother Nature began to pummel Iowa with tornadoes and flooding and most of the country seems to have forgotten or switched their focus to other things. The politicians still make trips to parts of Iowa that suffered the most, but there is definitely a political reason for them being here. What is happening to the people affected?

Countless people are still not able to do any work on their homes because of the red tape involved. In Cedar Rapids where 4,000 homes were flooded, there are still people living in tents or campers in their yards because the cost of motels is too expensive over a period of months. There is no water or sewer in these areas. FEMA provided portable toilets for a time with the understanding that the city of Cedar Rapids would take over this responsibility on a certain date. The FEMA Port-A-Potties were all removed last week leaving people who were living in tents on their home property without any toilet facilities for two days before the city finally began to place portable toilets in the area. This is just one example of how one government agency's miscommunication with another. The city itself has not addressed the issues in a timely fashion to get people into homes again. FEMA is still short at least 100 temporary housing structures just in Cedar Rapids. With cold weather approaching families are without heating sources. The steam plant in Cedar Rapids is not up and running to provide steam which heats many homes and businesses. The latest report is that additional home help will not be here til the first of the year. Where does that leave the homeless families?

Many businesses are still not reopened and when they do will have not only suffered the loss of income during the closure, but also loss of customers. Employees of those businesses have lost jobs and in many cases their homes. This is going on in every area of Iowa where floods and tornadoes struck. The federal government "talks" about allotting money to help rebuild, but very little of the money allotted has been seen by those affected.

I have three children in the class I volunteer for at school who were left homeless by flooding and are staying with various friends and relatives. I see the affect this has on them. This can be multiplied by at least 1,000 to get the number of children who have no permanent home. One of these children lives in a single parent family and the mother lost her job due to the business being closed by flooding. People of Iowa are good about helping one another out but everyone's resources are getting stretched thinner as the days go by.

With winter coming there will be many new issues and I pray there is more than talk by government agencies to help those who so desperately need help.