Today’s rain has just added to flooding problems in Emmet County. Emmet County Emergency Management Director Terry Reeckers says they’re sandbagging in the town of Armstrong. He says some homes have water coming in through the basement walls, with the ground saturated after the last inch-and-a-quarter of rain this morning. “This thing is just not going away.” Estherville residents are still having problems from last Saturday night’s rain, when floodwaters broke into a house. Reeker says “There was so much debris with this… three-foot wall of water that contained cornstalks and mud and everything else, it went up against the back door of a home and actually broke the door down. The water ran down the basement into the house.” He says some people may have to leave their homes. “Flood kits” are on the way to Emmet County from Des Moines, and Reeker doesn’t think he’ll have any trouble getting rid of those. He says emergency officials are concerned about some homes where residents have been continuously flooding since Saturday morning. “They’ve been pumping twenty-four-seven and just can’t keep up, they’re still maintaining a five or 6-foot level of water in their house, and that’s a long time for a house to be saturated with water.” Reeker says public health, city and emergency officials are debating whether to ask some of those people to evacuate to a safer location till some of the homes show some sign of drying up.
