Residents in west-central Iowa are cleaning out flooded basements after a deluge of rain fell last night and early this morning. Guthrie County emergency management director Bob Kempf says the heaviest band of precipitation fell over the Bayard, Panora and Menlo areas.

Kempf says there are reports since midnight of more than nine-inches of rain in Guthrie Center, five to six inches in the Lake Panorama area, and at least six-and-a-half inches in Stuart. Kempf says some roadways in the county are impassable due to flooding and pumps are being used at the wastewater treatment plants to try and keep water from backing up into residents’ basements.

The Highway 25 underpass is closed and pumps have been sent to various lift stations throughout the county to help deal with the stormwater runoff. He says water was flowing over the spillway at Diamondhead Lake, east of Stuart, but no evacuations have been ordered and no injuries are reported. Several dozen flood clean-up kits have been requested from the American Red Cross to help residents disinfect any areas of their homes affected by sewage backups.

Kempf says his office is working with the state to get help through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He says it’s important for residents who have experienced uninsured flood- or storm-related damage to call FEMA at 800-621-3362. He says it may mean the difference in having the county obtaining a federal disaster declaration.

Many areas of the state reported severe weather overnight, with at least three possible tornadoes, thousands of people without power and winds that topped out at 82-miles an hour in Boone.