Flooding, broken dams and Hurricane Beryl damage prompt discussions on how rural places can protect themselves

Tornadoes can rip across farmland and homes
in rural places. (Photo by N. Noonan Unsplash)

Extreme weather is often associated with flooded, wind-flattened or burned-to-the-ground homes and businesses. Rural areas have an added exposure to big losses that other areas don't have -- crops, animals and farm equipment can be damaged or annihilated during weather events.

Given those significant exposures, rural areas need to work on building or replacing support mechanisms and buckle down on wild weather preparedness, reports Chris Clayton of Progressive Farmer. "Rural America is learning the hard way that more investment is needed to protect rural infrastructure from catastrophic storms. . . . That includes Iowa, which is now coping with catastrophic damage in the northwestern part of the state following two April tornadoes that also ripped through communities." More recently, Vermont's Winooski River flooded roads, train tracks and homes after Hurricane Beryl's extreme rains filled it to bursting.

Kevin Paap, a commissioner for Blue Earth County, Minnesota, "testified at last week's U.S. Senate hearing for the National Association of Counties. Paap's county was on the national news during last month's flooding as the 100-year-old Rapidan Dam failed," Clayton explains. "Recovery is harder for small towns that don't have the funds for cost-share or even to write grants to help receive aid dollars, said Ted Brady, executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns. Most towns simply don't have the professional staff to help recover quickly."

In Iowa, flooding completely submerged some crops, and other farms were ravaged by tornadoes. Government officials "rolled out a series of new disaster programs -- including a low-interest loan program for farmers -- as communities grapple with at least 2,000 destroyed homes and another 3,000 damaged," Clayton explains. "In some towns, nearly every single downtown business was wiped out, along with an estimated $130 million in damaged public infrastructure to the state."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is changing some of its requirements to prevent extreme weather damage. "FEMA announced that public infrastructure rebuilt with FEMA money will have to be built to be more resilient from flooding," Clayton reports. "In the Senate hearing, Paap and others called for a more rapid response to help rural areas." Town mayors are calling for more financial flexibility "to ensure communities can spend disaster money in ways that will help mitigate long-term flood risks."