Monday, August 11, 2008
Palo
This afternoon I toured the Linn County town of Palo. I met with City Council members Paula Gunter and Jeannie Blumer, along with Penny Glavin and Tom Watson.
Palo is a community of about 1000 people and only 10 and 1 business in the entire town were not flooded!
As I toured Palo, I was impressed with how much clean up had already occurred. But, it was also brought home to me how badly we need to quickly get FEMA trailers into towns across eastern Iowa. We simply do not have enough rental property to accommodate everyone who has been displaced.
While in Palo I also met Max Hagen of Hagen Berry Farms, the largest strawberry farm in Iowa. The farm was flooded in June and Max has some concerns with how the Farm Service Agency collects data used for disaster assistance for producers like himself.
