Gov. Terry Branstad and other state officials will be getting a first-hand look at the flooding situation in Butler County on Saturday (Sept. 24, 2016).

Iowa's top-elected official will be touring water-logged Clarksville and Shell Rock, before heading to Cedar Rapids to view flood preparations going on there. Branstad plans to spend an hour visiting each community.

The Governor will be in Clarksville from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. He is scheduled to visit Shell Rock from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Branstad will be joined on the tour by Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, Iowa National Guard Adjutant General Tim Orr and Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Mark Schouten.

On Friday, Branstad signed a disaster emergency declaration for 13 northeast Iowa counties affected by major flooding and ordered deployment of the National Guard to assist recovery efforts in those areas. The counties are: Allamakee, Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Cedar, Chickasaw, Delaware, Floyd, Franklin, Linn and Wright.

Orr has deployed teams of Iowa Natural Guard soldiers to emergency management offices in 11 counties. Three more teams will be deployed on Saturday, focusing on areas south of Iowa City that are preparing for flooding.

"We just have to deal with whatever situation comes our way," Branstad told reporters during a news conference on Friday. "We need to be as well-prepared and in a situation like this in major cities like Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, obviously, we have a little time to prepare. We want to do everything we can for the state to assist the communities and doing the best job we can to avoid and mitigate damage."

The governor’s proclamation allows state resources, such as the National Guard, to be utilized to respond to and recover from the effects of this severe flooding. The proclamation also activates the Iowa Individual Assistance Program for residents of those 13 counties.

The Iowa Individual Assistance Program provides grants of up to $5,000 for households with incomes up to 200 percent of the current federal poverty level, or a maximum annual income of $40,320, for a family of three. Grants are available for home or car repairs, replacement of clothing or food, and for the expense of temporary housing. Original receipts are required for those seeking reimbursement for actual expenses related to storm recovery.

The grant application and instructions are available on the Iowa Department of Human Services website. Potential applicants have 45 days from the date of the proclamation to submit a claim.

The State of Iowa has been assisting the impacted communities in their response to the flooding and will be helping prepare other areas for the anticipated flooding in the days ahead. The Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has coordinated the delivery of state resources to the impacted communities.

Resources that have been provided include:

  • More than 120,000 sandbags (4 dump truck loads of sand)
  • Deployed or staged 22 water pumps
  • Placed or staged 48 pallets of flood barriers, equal to 4,320 linear feet
  • Placed 50 traffic barricades
  • Provided assistance to local law enforcement
  • Deployed (4) Incident Management Team personnel to assist with response operations in Linn County
  • Deployed 400 Flood Clean-up Kits

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