Help has been slow to arrive for Iowans devastated by last week’s derecho storm, which brought hurricane-force winds and has left thousands without power and homeless or in badly damaged homes. But despite the devastation, it took Gov. Kim Reynolds nearly a week to ask for federal disaster relief.
Reynolds, a Republican, has said that she deployed the National Guard as soon as local officials in Cedar Rapids asked for help, while the officials say they started asking immediately. Reynolds also says some of the delay in asking for federal help was because the scope of the need wasn’t immediately clear. But according to Democratic Rep. Abby Finkenauer: “The state and federal aid we needed immediately after the storm on Monday was delayed for days by a misunderstanding of this disaster and plain ignorance about the reality on the ground in communities across eastern Iowa.”
“I live here. I saw it firsthand,” said Finkenauer, who has been out on the streets physically helping to clear downed trees. “We need FEMA, we need additional support from the National Guard, and we need to amplify the stories of what’s happening on the ground here to spark more action from our governor and the administration.”
Residents of Cedar Rapids told The Washington Post they were frustrated by the lack of help. “There’s so much destruction, but the response is moving really slow. I figured it would be a lot quicker,” said Pamela Elliott, an insurance company claims processor who went to a Red Cross shelter days after the storm ripped the roof off her apartment.
”It’s still been a week and we don’t have any help out here,” said Calvin Ross, a construction day laborer who told the Post that help had come more quickly after flooding in 2008.
This disaster comes against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, which state officials blame for slowing down the response but which also makes the response more urgent, since crowded shelters and homelessness—never great things to begin with—carry added dangers.
