REO Speedwagon`s `Ridin` The Storm Out Flood Relief` concert has so far raised $275,000 for victims of the Iowa Flood.
Now Polk County has agreed to match the figure dollar-for-dollar bringing the total raised to $550,000.REO Speedwagon announced the benefit concert after lead singer Kevin Cronin watched the suffering on CNN from a hotel room in London. “I saw the horrific video of a house being torn from its foundation, and washed away, due the flooding in the Midwest,” he said in a statement. “I quickly realized that these were our people whose lives were being uprooted, and they needed our help. I feel a deep loyalty, and a responsibility to do whatever we can to help our midwestern brothers and sisters in their time of extreme need. We can`t be there filling sandbags, but we can rock. Hopefully, with this concert we can raise money, as well as morale, for those in need."
Cronin grew up in Chicago and the band started out in Champaign, Illinois. The band helped raise funds for the rebuilding of Greenburg, Kansas earlier in the year after the town was hit by a tornado.
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie said, “The band has been very supportive of disaster relief not just here in Des Moines, but across the country. The fact that REO`s roots are right here in the Midwest has given Kevin and the band firsthand experience of the impact that severe weather can have on people`s lives."
