LAMONT, Iowa (BP)–Flood debris sitting in the sun produced a foul odor in Lamont, Iowa, a small town of 490 people about 35 miles east of Waterloo. Some residents piled debris on the curb for sanitation workers to haul away, but they were at a loss for what to do next.
Many of the town’s senior adults and some with physical disabilities had been waiting for assistance to clean out their homes, which were damaged by floodwaters when eight inches of rain fell the evening of May 25. The mayor of Lamont, Afred Hotchkiss, heard about Southern Baptist disaster relief at a meeting of the emergency management council in the county seat about 20 miles away.