After having such offices in northwest Iowa for several weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has now opened four disaster management centers in southeastern South Dakota.
The centers are designed to be one-stop-shops for people affected by the severe flooding that hit Siouxland in late June. One of the areas with the worst damage and the largest number of people displaced from their homes was the McCook Lake neighborhood in north Sioux City, and there is now a FEMA center in Union County.
The other South Dakota counties with disaster assistance centers are Davison, Lincoln and Turner. FEMA staff can explain disaster assistance programs and help people fill out or check the status of applications for federal assistance.
As of July, there were more than ten such centers in northwest Iowa counties, but some of them have been closed.
Not everyone has returned to their homes on McCook Lake, but there is some good news: This week, the lake reopened to boating. However, McCook Lake is currently in a no-swell zone, meaning people are not allowed to go faster than 5 miles per hour.
Almost three months had passed since a government agency banned people from using boats there.
*In other news, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and other state officials are on an official trade mission to India.
According to a press release from the governor’s office, the purpose of the mission is to work toward strengthening Iowa’s trade and investment ties with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
The delegation that left Iowa on Tuesday included Reynolds, Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority, Mike Naig, Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, and Iowa’s agricultural and business leaders.
The ten-day mission includes stops in Delhi and Mumbai, where they will meet with key Indian government officials and American business leaders.
*In early September, a U.S. Department of Energy official visited an experimental farm at Iowa State University that is studying growing food around solar panels.
It is the first project of its kind in Iowa to focus on agri-photovoltaics – the idea of using the land around these sites for other agricultural purposes, such as growing produce or raising livestock.
Katie Hendrickson of the U.S. Department of Energy said projects like these would help the country transition to cleaner energy.
“The ability to install solar across the country will help decarbonize, and to do that we need to use farmland. The ability to use farmland – whether it’s pasture or particularly crops as we see them today (…) – is something we cannot achieve without working with our farmers,” Hendrickson said.
ISU researchers began growing broccoli, strawberries, summer squash and other crops on the site this year. They are also raising bees and creating a pollinator garden to support production. The project is funded by a four-year grant from the Department of Energy.
*In other news, a multi-year case appears to have been settled accusing a north-central Iowa police chief of using a stun gun at parties and other crimes.
He was not the only one in his community who came into conflict with the law.
Former Armstrong Police Chief Craig Merrill entered an Alford plea Wednesday to two counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon in Emmet County.
That means he agrees to a deal with prosecutors but does not admit guilt. According to court documents, all other charges will be dropped.
Merrill was charged in connection with the Taser incidents that occurred at two parties at his home in 2016. His lawyers say people were intentionally tasered.
Merrill and more city leaders were arrested in 2021 Prosecutors described the allegations as a “long-running corruption complex” that included the embezzlement of city funds.
Three city employees pleaded guilty and were not sent to prison. Former Mayor Greg Buum, Merrill’s father-in-law, is scheduled to go on trial in Clay County on October 1.
