(Radio Iowa) – One month after flooding devastated the northwest Iowa town of Rock Valley, the mayor says work is still underway to bring in temporary housing. Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo says the residents of about 150 households can no longer live in their homes. “We are working hard on trying to get housing options, trailer court options. We’re working on a lot of stuff,” the mayor says. “We are at first working on temporary options for people to at least have a place to stay at night, instead of staying with relatives, because that can only go on for so long.”

Van Otterloo says Rock Valley is still waiting to get the all-clear from the federal government to start moving people into campers and trailers that are being staged at the Sioux County Fairgrounds, some ten miles away. He says FEMA is still assessing the damage to determine what financial help will be available for residents who were impacted the most. “The major concern is, ‘Do I put money back in this house, or are you going to buy me out?’ We can’t answer that question yet,” he says. “We keep telling then ‘It’s your house. Even if there’s a buyout offered, you don’t have to take it. You can still stay there. It’s your property.”

Radio Iowa – flood file photo

Van Otterloo says there was already a critical need for housing -before- flooding hit the town of four-thousand.