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Gov. Chet Culver is refuting a story published yesterday in The Des Moines Register that said he told Congressional leaders that 32,000 homes were damaged this year in Iowa by flooding and tornadoes.
The story focused on numbers released by the American Red Cross that disputed those claims. The organization said only 12,302 homes in Iowa had some type of flood-related damage, and that another 704 were damaged by tornadoes.
Two taxpayer watchdog groups were quoted as saying the numbers appeared to be inflated for the specific purpose of getting more cash from the federal government.
In a statement, Culver Communications Director Troy Price said the governor never made those claims.
“Any reports that claim that Gov. Culver alleged that 32,000 homes in Iowa were damaged are quite simply wrong. The governor has never made such a claim, nor cited this number,†Price said. “The governor was clear in Washington, and all along has been clear with Iowans, about the number of houses affected by this year’s severe weather.â€
Price said that throughout his meetings, Cuvler made it clear that the best estimates on housing damage were that nearly 12,000 homes were destroyed or damaged to a point they are uninhabitable at the time of inspection. Also, an additional 11,943 homes have sustained some damage but families are able to inhabit the homes at this time, meaning that, in total, around 20,000 homes have been affected by the flooding and tornadoes. In total, these homes account for between $900 million and $950 million in financial damages that may not be met by federal disaster programs, Price said. The governor’s estimation was based on information provided by county, state, and federal Emergency Management officials, who performed a door-to-door inspection.
“Though true that 32,000 Iowans have applied for assistance through the FEMA Individual Assistance Program, this number was not used in determining the estimated houses damaged across the state,” the statement from the governor’s office said.
The Register ran a follow-up to their report today, saying that story was based on interviews with governor’s aides and Rebuild Iowa Office staff.
Culver himself did not say Iowa had 32,000 damaged homes, as reported in Thursday’s paper. But Culver’s staff and Rebuild Iowa Office aides, in follow-up questions, did use that number on Tuesday and again on Wednesday in response to questions about how they came up with the $1.2 billion estimate.
No other figures for home damage were cited on Tuesday or Wednesday in response to Register questions about specifics about how the numbers were derived. The governor’s office did not cite any source for the figures except FEMA applications.
In the follow up story, Price said the statements were made by state aides that were unclear as to what the 32,000 figure represented and how the dollar estimate was made.
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