Hard-hit Iowa towns wonder whether to rebuild

Record floods in Iowa, in some places preceded by damaging weather, may have struck fatal blows to some of the state's small towns, P.J. Huffstutter writes for the Los Angeles Times.

"State emergency officials are still trying to determine how many of these tiny towns have been damaged by the floods," he writes. "But given that 83 of the state's 99 counties were declared disaster areas by Gov. Chet Culver, and 31 towns and rural areas evacuated residents in recent days, officials said Thursday that the number could be significant."

Huffstutter, the chief of the Times bureau in Chicago, writes from New Hartford (Encarta map), which was hit first by a tornado, then a flood. He updates a Des Moines Register story by Jessie Halladay, which said "All that damage has left many wondering if the town can even survive."

"Several of the businesses in the town of about 650 have decided not to reopen, and even the post office might close," says the Times cutline on the photo above, by Matthew Putney. The businesses include a gas station, a convenience store, and a hardware store that opened in 1931 and "survived the floods of 1947 and the floods of 1993," an owner said. "It's too much. Everything's leaving. People keep wondering if the town's going to die." (Read more)