Rebuilding Rural Resilience in Recovery

By: Chris Clayton

Rural America is learning the hard way that more investment is needed to protect rural infrastructure from catastrophic storms. That includes Iowa, which is now coping with catastrophic damage in the northwestern part of the state following two April tornadoes that also ripped through communities. At least 28 counties have state disaster declarations, and there have been three presidential declarations.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and members of her team on Thursday rolled out a series of new disaster programs — including a low-interest loan program for farmers — as communities grapple with at least 2,000 destroyed homes and another 3,000 damaged. In some towns, nearly every single downtown business was wiped out, along with an estimated $130 million in damaged public infrastructure to the state.