More than seven months after historic flooding of the Rock River tore the town of Rock Valley, Iowa asunder, City Administrator Tom Van Maanen said he still gets questions from local residents.
Roughly 500 homes in the Sioux County city of 4,045 sustained flood damage. Since June 22, 2024, the city has worked to find affected homes that would qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) buyouts. City staff eventually identified 110 homes to apply for a hazard mitigation grant buyout. They submitted paperwork with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management for review and have been waiting for a recommendation to be sent off to FEMA for approval. Van Maanen thinks the city will hear back sometime in April.
“From an administrative side, I get why it takes this long for the buyout process, but I would say at a minimum I talk to three to five people a day …