In the early summer of 2008, heavy flooding caused the Mississippi River to spill into towns along Iowa’s southeastern border. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, and hundreds of structures were submerged, with some estimates calculating the total cost of the destruction over $6 billion.
Over the next several months, national service members were called in to help rebuild the ravaged cities and towns and to set up temporary shelters.
“Where we’ve seen flooding or we’ve seen disasters, national service is typically one of the front lines that are coming and helping muck and gut and set up temporary emergency volunteer-run locations,” said Ashley Coffin, director of Green Iowa AmeriCorps, an environmental service program that was established in the wake of the catastrophic flooding to help prepare for potential future natural disasters…