(Radio Iowa) – Northwest Iowans still face a long road to recovery three months after devastating flooding hit the region. The Big Sioux River forced dozens of people from their homes in the Riverside neighborhood of Sioux City, including Deanna Mercure. “It was rough, and it still is. It’s been the longest three months of my life,” Mercure says. “I was just devastated, thinking, ‘What am I going to do? I don’t want to leave this house.’ It just all fell in place with everybody that stepped up.”

Mercure says she received 26-thousand dollars from FEMA to help with home repairs and is hoping to secure another 50-thousand in state funding. However, she admits that isn’t enough and she still needed to take out a home equity loan. Jeanne Derby’s home, also in the Riverside neighborhood, was heavily damaged when the Big Sioux River poured out of its banks. Even though it will still take some time before she can move back in, Derby is thankful for help from the federal government, the state, and local organizations.

“The community came together. When I didn’t have clothes, people dropped clothes off, people dropped shoes off,” Derby says. “People I didn’t know showed up to help tear my walls off. It was amazing.” A local Long Term Recovery Group was formed to help flood victims connect with much-needed services. So far, FEMA has approved more than three-million dollars for 325 households in Woodbury County. The deadline to apply for individual assistance from FEMA ends on October 22nd for Woodbury and several other Iowa counties impacted by natural disasters this summer.

File photo of this summer’s flooding in Sioux City’s Riverside neighborhood. (KSCJ photo)

Counties included: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Humboldt, Lyon, Monona, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Pottawattamie, Scott, Sioux, and Woodbury.