Program Summary 

Disaster Profile 

Our teams provided clean-up and recovery assistance to the communities of Jasper County, Iowa in response to severe flooding. The city of Colfax, in particular, was the hardest hit city within Jasper County. We needed to enhance and streamline volunteer coordination in Colfax and the greater Jasper County. This was achieved by working closely with Region VII FEMA Voluntary Agency Liaisons.

After weeks of rainfall resulting in swollen rivers, a powerful storm dumped several more inches of rain on the area. This caused the Skunk River’s banks to top. Colfax was the hardest hit city in southern Iowa, where the flooding surpassed the 1993 river levels and devastation. Being a city of under 3,000 people, Colfax worked hard to clean up on their own. However, they were overwhelmed when it came to managing requests for volunteer assistance from the affected community.

Our Work 

We began by supporting local community members and helping to coordinate volunteer operations. This was a similar approach to the 2008 flood recovery project in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We offered operational support within Jasper County and improved the delivery of services and communication among responding volunteer organizations. This was achieved by implementing its proven work request system and its successful style of inter-agency coordination. We also helped to clean out flood-damaged homes and coordinate and track disaster responses. This took place throughout Jasper County, where we used an online database system. In addition, our staff released regular situation reports. These reports provided timely and relevant information to city, county, state and federal emergency management officials.

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