Iowa’s former secretary of agriculture is back in the state to survey flood damage and talk to displaced residents, especially farmers who have had many hundreds of acres underwater. Bill Northey, now an undersecretary at the U-S-D-A, says it was “mind-boggling” to tour the disaster areas of water-logged southwest Iowa.
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Northey says he worries a wrecked levee system along the Missouri River is leaving the area vulnerable to more flooding, perhaps very soon. He says he knows fields are unprotected, as farmers wait for the water to recede.
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Northey says he has two messages for his boss, U-S Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue. First, farmers need help to recover — now, and second, changes are needed in how the Missouri River is managed to prevent another repeat.