How To Help Iowa Newspapers and Their Employees

The staffs of The Gazette and KCRG in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have been overwhelmed with the generous and unsolicited help and offers to help as they continue to publish and broadcast on all platforms through the flooding disaster in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Gazette Editor Steve Buttry says they were especially overwhelmed by the truckload of bottled water, cots, fruit and other donations from the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque.

Newspaper employees in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Vinton, Iowa City and other towns in the flood zone are now facing significant personal losses. Many have contributed unstintingly to outstanding coverage despite their personal upheaval.

The Iowa Newspaper Foundation has established a fund to help these people in need. Donations may be made online or by sending checks to Iowa Media Employees Disaster Relief Fund at Iowa Newspaper Foundation, 319 E. 5th St., Des Moines, IA 50309. Donations to the fund are tax-deductible.

The foundation has also assembled two databases, one of the needs of newspapers affected by the flood and one of resources offered by other newspapers.

Most people living outside the 100-year flood plain in Cedar Rapids did not have flood insurance. This flood went beyond the 500-year flood plain, so it is truly a disaster of millennial proportions, with much of the damage uninsured. While victims will receive FEMA assistance, that is almost certainly not enough. The foundation will take steps to ensure that any aid collected is used only for legitimate flood damage beyond any reimbursement from insurance, FEMA or other public assistance.