COUNCIL BLUFFS – On Tuesday, April 2, 2019, officials with the Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Agency, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will conduct a joint preliminary damage assessment throughout the county. Their focus will be to validate residential damages and impacts reported by the public and those preliminary local damages assessment made by the local damage assessment teams.

Doug Reed, Director of Emergency Management for Pottawattamie County, says “This assessment will be used to validate identified damages to residential properties and to make determination on our agency’s request to be included in the Individual Assistance portion of the Major Disaster Declaration issued by President Trump.”

If approved by FEMA, the addition of Pottawattamie County in the Individual Assistance Program will allow residents throughout the county, impacted by the recent flooding of March 12th and continuing, to apply for potential assistance from FEMA. The program would also provide access to programs available from the Small Business Administration for residential property owners, renters, and businesses.

Reed said the original declaration issued by President Trump approved the county for emergency work under the Public Assistance Program to allow government entities and qualifying non-profits to recover certain costs associated with the disaster. Last week, additional approvals for the county were issued for permanent work under the program that aid jurisdictions in repairing and restoring damaged infrastructure such as streets, highways, bridges, parks, water control facilities, and other damaged public property.

Residents are still encouraged to report their damages on the emergency management flood page that can be found at https://pottcounty-ia.gov/departments/emergency-management/flood-2019-march-12th-continuing/. Once a determination is made on the request for inclusion in Individual Assistance, residents will be advised how they can apply to FEMA for assistance.