Two federal disaster declarations for Winneshiek County?

An application to declare Winneshiek County a federal disaster area because of the August 24th flooding now sits on President Obama's desk, with a decision expected within the next six weeks.

But Winneshiek County Emergency Government Director Sean Snyder says with all the flooding which has happened in Eastern Iowa this fall, it's possible Winneshiek County will be named a federal disaster area not once, but twice.

That's because Winneshiek County has been asked by the State of Iowa to submit figures about the impact of last week's heavy rains.  The county was fortunate not to have much damage, but the cost of putting up barricades and doing some road work might be covered in a second federal disaster area designation.

With parts of Eastern Iowa still battling flooding, the application for the next federal disaster area designation will take awhile to put together.  And a second federal disaster area designation would provide funds only for public properties, not private homes.  Still, Winneshiek County might be the recipient of federal help not once, but twice.