Small towns that experience disasters often have to fight very hard to get a federal disaster declaration and accompanying aid to restore things after tornados or floods. Pontiac, Illinois had trouble after floods a decade ago. More recently, Washington, Illinois had no luck. But, the authorizing bill for the governing agency FEMA is up this year in Congress.
And in this interview with Charlie Schlenker, Congressman Rodney Davis has hope that one mechanism or another will come through.
Rodney Davis's opponent in the March Republican Primary is Ethan Vandersand, a 37-year old pharmacist from Carrolton, Illinois. Vandersand has so far raised less than $5,000 for his campaign fund. Davis is sitting on nearly $800,000.