by Rebecca Walker — December 26, 2008—The amount of federal disaster aid channeled to Iowans or state departments has picked up in recent months, but some people worry that future allocations could fall short, adding pressure to an already strained state budget, according to the Des Moines Register.
To date, about $800 million of $1.4 billion promised to Iowa by the federal government has been delivered to residents or state agencies handling recovery efforts from June’s record floods, according to state records.
The $800 million has grown by about $300 million from 10 weeks ago.
Since this summer’s storms, the federal money has become even more critical, state officials said, as Iowa faces budget cuts because of the worsening national economy.
In total, Iowa suffered an estimated $10 billion in damage from the tornadoes and floods this year.
The state does have $620 million in reserves, but, even if every cent were used for flood recovery, it will fall far short of what is needed, lawmakers say.
For more information, see the Web site of the Des Moines Register.
