(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued a disaster proclamation for Allamakee and Muscatine Counties in response to the Mississippi River flooding. The governor’s proclamation today (Friday)  activates the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program and the Disaster Case Management Program for Allamakee and Muscatine Counties.

The Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program provides grants of up to $5,000 for households with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Grants are available for home or car repairs, replacement of clothing or food, and temporary housing expenses. Original receipts are required for those seeking reimbursement for actual expenses related to storm recovery. The grant application and instructions are available on the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services website at https://dhs.iowa.gov/disaster-assistance-programs. Potential applicants have 45 days from the date of the proclamation to submit a claim.

The Disaster Case Management Program addresses serious needs related to disaster-related hardship, injury, or adverse conditions. Disaster case managers work with clients to create a disaster recovery plan and provide guidance, advice, and referral to obtain a service or resource. There are no income eligibility requirements for this program; it closes 180 days from the date of the governor’s proclamation. For information on the Disaster Case Management Program, contact your local community action association or visit www.iowacommunityaction.org.

The governor issued a disaster proclamation on April 25 that made the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program and Disaster Case Management Program available to residents in Clayton, Clinton, Dubuque, Jackson, and Scott counties.

(Radio Iowa) – City staff in Dubuque are preparing for the Mississippi River to crest this weekend. John Klostermann has been in Dubuque’s Public Works department for 47 years and has been its director since 2016. His department has been preparing for this flood since February, but he says their work is built on decisions made half century ago. ) “It’s not something we just decided to do this year or last year,” he says. “It’s been building every year since it was dedicated in 1973.”

Klostermann says it’s normal for SOME of the 17 gates that form the city’s flood wall to be used during spring flood season. “All the gates have been closed and that’s only the third time since the levee system was constructed and completed in 1973 that we’ve closed all the gates,” he says, “so it’s an unusual type event.”

While the river will be at flood stage for another week or so, the National Weather Service anticipates the water cresting in Dubuque at 24-point-four feet on Saturday and then slowly coming down.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Supreme Court has ruled the Iowa Utilities Board should have considered whether operating coal plants is economical when it approved an emissions control plan from MidAmerican Energy in 2020. Environmental advocates sued the Iowa Utilities Board for rejecting a report that said retiring some coal-fired power plants would be the most cost-effective way to meet state and federal pollution standards.

The report suggested electric generation from wind turbines and solar installations could replace the power being produced at MidAmerican coal-fired plants near Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Ottumwa and Muscatine. The Iowa Utilities Board ruled that evidence was irrelevant. The Iowa Supreme Court ruling says the board is required by law to consider cost effectiveness, so the board must now redo its review of MidAmerican’s emissions control plans.

Governor Reynolds recently appointed two new members to the three-person Iowa Utilities Board — and their terms start Monday.

(Radio Iowa) – The lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Johnston says it’s unlikely the rest of Iowa will experience the kind of flooding that’s hit the 10 counties along the Mississippi River. Brad Small says almost all of the flooding in eastern Iowa is caused by melting snow the fell in Minnesota and Wisconsin, “which is somewhat unusual because a lot of our spring floods are kind of a cumulative thing that started in the fall with maybe a wet fall and then we had a big winter of snowfall and then spring rains started and this is kind of unique that it’s almost entirely driven by the snow pack,” Small says.

“We’re actually kind of low on our rivers in central Iowa and the Missouri is quite low, too.” Drought conditions exist in many areas of western Iowa and Small says it would take a lot of rain to change that. There have already been more than two dozen confirmed tornadoes in Iowa so far this spring. That includes 11 that hit the state on March 31st. Donna Dubberke, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Johnston, says storm spotters are important in identifying where tornadoes are forming.

“They fill in some of the gaps, so it’s ‘ground truth,’” Dubberke says, “and it lets us in real time calibrate what we’re seeing with the technology to what’s actually occurring.”

Dubberke and Small made their comments during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs tonight on Iowa PBS. The five National Weather Service offices that provide forecasts and weather warnings for Iowa are located in Omaha; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Johnston, the Quad Cities and La Crosse, Wisconsin.