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Iowa's Lesson On Natural Disasters

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

The state of Iowa has suffered Mother Nature's wrath in a way Floridians who suffered through the storms of 2004 and 2005 can relate. After one of the most brutal winters in memory, this spring brought a record number of tornadoes, torrential rain and now a 500-year flood that has left thousands of Iowans homeless.

What the nation also has witnessed in Iowa is government authorities at all levels working together to minimize loss of life and damage to property - a stark contrast to the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina's flooding of New Orleans in 2005. A key lesson here is that local authorities matter most.

In Iowa - at the city, county and state level - officials conveyed needed information to the public quickly and, in many cases, together, conducting press conference after press conference to communicate the latest data on river levels and what was being done in response. They also used those updates to ask for volunteers to help with evacuations and sandbagging, reminding residents that government can only do so much.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has received a lot of criticism post-Katrina, will eventually show up to dispense aid to overwhelmed Iowa, which is its role.

FEMA is not a rescue operation. Its primary mission is recovery following natural and manmade disasters, a task which it failed miserably after Katrina. But the first, and most important, responders to any emergency must be local.

As the images from flood-ravaged Iowa are replayed on news reports, and hurricane season heats up in coming months, that is important to remember. It may be impossible to completely prepare for a natural disaster, but it is important for the people you can count on to be close at hand, not in an office in Washington.

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