SituationAwareness:

May 3: Flooding continues in Indiana, but assessments have not been completed for personal property loss. All of Indiana planting is affected and thousands of homes have suffered from flooding and/or wind damage.

May 19: Planting has been severely delayed, especially in the southern third of the state. About a dozen counties have experienced severe flooding. The seven most affected counties are estimated to have almost 300 homes with more than basement flooding. There are no figures on how many homes had basement flooding. Emergency managers, American Red Cross and Salvation Army are still doing assessments, with about 107 home still inaccessible.

ImpactUni:

No personnel were physically threatened. Crop planting at research farms is delayed. 

UniResponseEfforts:

The Purdue Extension maintains Crop Management Information for Flood-Damaged Crops at

Crop Flood Information
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/cafe/flood/index.html  

Personal Flood Recovery
http://www.ag.purdue.edu/extension/eden/Pages/flood-home.aspx  

In addition several thousand hardcopies of First Steps to Flood Recovery were distributed through county offices and the American Red Cross, often at the request of ARC.

Purdue Extension facilitated two Community Organizations Active in Disaster meeting which brought together flood response personnel is counties across the state. In addition, Purdue Extension provides updates to all COAD personnel.

May 19: The Purdue Extension Mold Team, part of the Healthy Homes program, is responding to a few calls from Indiana residents who have mold issues from the floods. Purdue Extension provides extensive educational materials in print and video to help homeowners with flooding.

As President of the Indiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, Steve Cain met in a conference call with the Governor's Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to discuss the damage and recovery issues. We are still waiting for assessments to be completed, so the conference calls on recovery will be weekly until the issue is resolved. We don't know whether Indiana will receive a federal declaration, but we are working with FEMA and the state to inject donations into the National Donations Management Network for Indiana. Meanwhile, Cain has worked with Indiana Voluntary Organizations to work with local Community Organizations Active in Disaster. With the size and scope of disaster elsewhere in the country, local, Indiana COADs are gearing up for recovery on the assumption that they will not receive outside assistance. Purdue Extension's EDEN site provides resources on all issues about disasters including floods. The site recieves more than 100,000 visitors per year.

On ag issues, Cain and the Executive Director of the Farm Services Agency, Julia Wickard, also met by conference call and agreed to share resources. Purdue's Chat 'n Chew Cafe provides "Crop Management INformation for Flood Damaged Field Crops."
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/cafe/flood/index.html

UseofEDENResourcs:

Yes to all. First, long-term use of EDEN is the major reason Purdue Extension resources and efforts exist. Simply, without EDEN, we wouldn't be reaching communities and thousands of individuals with recovery information. Getting to catalogued resources and other state, EDEN pages has been most useful. Many of the mold remediation materials and land reclamation information came from using the EDEN network.

DisasterInstitution:

Purdue University   [Steve Cain]