Claire, here is a portion of an e-mail I received at work with a link for flood donations and volunteer opportunities. Thanks for your concern.
One issue that constantly comes up during and after a disaster involves people wanting to help. While officials stressed that the best way to help is to make a cash donation to a charity of your choice, a new way to donate has been announced. By visiting the flood 2008 web site and clicking on the donations link on the upper left side, Iowans and others can donate cash, volunteer and supply their time. This will help both those that want to donate and emergency managers and responders often faced with the task of managing donations. The donation link was coordinated by the Safeguard Iowa Partnership, an agency established to help coordinate private and public response and preparedness efforts. During this disaster, Safeguard Iowa is at the State Emergency Operations Center coordinating private and public efforts. The flood 2008 website is at
http://flood2008.iowa.gov/ .