OTTUMWA — U.S. Reps. Dave Loebsack and Steve King don’t often agree. They’re not quite polar opposites on the political spectrum, but there is very little common ground most of the time.

There is common ground this summer, but much of it is or was under water. The floods brought the two onto the same side for getting aid for Iowa. About 80 percent of the state was impacted at some level by the floods.

Few areas were harder hit than the Second District, which is represented by Loebsack. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City saw flooding worse than what occurred in 1993. Wapello County wasn’t hit quite as hard, but Supervisor Steve Siegel estimates the county still had 200-250 homes affected by the flood.

“Some roads are still under and I don’t know how many miles of road we’ll have to rebuild,” Siegel said.

That’s part of the reason both Loebsack and King, the Republican congressman from Iowa’s Fifth District, are pushing for federal relief for the costs involved in the flood. Loebsack praised King’s knowledge of small business issues and said elected officials from every part of the state are working together to find solutions.

That effort brought Loebsack to Ottumwa for a roundtable meeting with local officials on Monday morning.

They said pressure from the federal government is needed to keep relief efforts on track. Supervisor Greg Kenning related a phone call from Federal Emergency Management Agency workers in Ottumwa to fellow Supervisor Jerry Parker. They placed the call at 6 a.m. on the Fourth of July to complain about the communications at the Hellyer Center, where they set up last Tuesday.

“They threatened to pull out by this morning if it wasn’t rectified,” Kenning said.

Jean Podruchny, a FEMA liason in Ottumwa, said she was unaware of any such call or threat. There was some confusion with the phone company, but she said FEMA is pleased with how things are going in Ottumwa.

“I’ve not heard any complaints,” she said.

Ottumwa Fire Chief Steve O’Connor echoed the complaint.

“Like Greg said, it was very frustrating,” he said. FEMA sent multiple people down without coordinating the plans and standards for flood relief. “We’re getting messages from too many folks.”

That said, O’Connor praised FEMA’s work with getting people signed up for individual assistance. The work getting people into the process to receive aid to rebuild has gone well.

Flood damage in Ottumwa is limited. But it hit rural Wapello County hard. Some farmers are reconsidering whether they want to rebuild where they are or move to higher ground.

David Kastengren of the Farm Service Agency said farmers saw 1993 as a fluke. But this year’s flooding convinced some that this is a trend. The main complaint from farmers is that the Army Corps of Engineers and state officials put a premium on recreational use of the state’s reservoirs and leave little room for heavy rains. Then they release huge amounts of water downstream, flooding farms that didn’t need to be submerged.