Clean-up efforts continue today after a tornado caused significant damage in the Little Rock and Sibley areas of northwest Iowa Friday evening. Lyon County Emergency Management Coordinator, Wayne Jepsen, says rural areas near Little Rock received serious building and crop damage — but things are looking up.

He says they had a tremendous amount of volunteers that showed up Saturday and Sunday to help clean up the damage, and the operations have gone quite smoothly. Jepsen says most of the volunteer work is about over.

Jepsen says the recovery is about to the place where they don’t need any more volunteers and the contractors will now do the heavy work to clean up the rest. The tornado touched down west of Little Rock and moved east-southeast. It then strengthened, reaching its maximum strength of E-F-4 two miles southwest of Sibley.

By Matt Crosby, KQAD/KLQL, Luverne, Minnesota

Water in fields in western Iowa.

Much of Iowa is in a watching and waiting game to see how much water is going to flow off the land and into rivers and streams.

Karl Jungbluth of the National Weather Service says while the skies have cleared, we still have to worry about what the clouds left behind.

“Late last week through the weekend, everybody was dealing with the flash-flooding and the rapid rises, and the ponding the fields, and now it’s working its way through the rivers, and that’s going to take some time. Iowa’s rivers have a fairly shallow slope, so it takes a long time to move all that water downstream,” Junbluth explains.

[Read more...]

Heavy rains in the Webster City and surrounding area sent the Boone River over its banks. Residents who live along the river had to move for higher ground as the river reached 17.9 feet last night. The river is beginning to recede with a measurement of 17.8 feet this morning.

The flood stage on the Boone is at 12 feet with the water to recede by mid-week. Sandbagging efforts were also underway in Webster City to prevent the water from spreading. Webster City’s Fuller Hall recreation center served as a shelter for those affected by the flooding with a few families spending last night.

A city campground, a recreational trail and the Hamilton County Speedway remain underwater due to the heavy rains. There are some streets in the community facing high water problems. Webster City measured four point 49 inches of rain this past weekend.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City