While residents of Lake Delhi in northeast Iowa continue to work on recovering from last Saturday’s disastrous dam break, other people are driving to the area just to see the damage. Richard Baker and his family drove 45 miles out of the way on their vacation to take a peek at the dam.”I wanted my children to see it. I like them to see this kind of stuff and see what can happen,” Baker said. “I feel bad for the people who live here. They are going to have a mess to deal with for a long time.”

Hundreds of homes and boats were damaged or destroyed in the dam burst as the nine-mile long lake emptied into farm fields and towns downstream. Lake Delhi has always attracted tourists, but now people are stopping there for a much different reason. Delhi residents, including Rose Putz, have mixed feelings about all the attention and curiosity. “Everybody is rushing to get stuff out of their homes right now, a lot of people are getting in the way, but we appreciate that they care,” Putz said.

Over the next few weeks and months locals expect plenty of people will come and take a look at the dam. They just hope the people will also reach out and help. The Lake Delhi Recreation Association has placed a call for volunteers to help move huge piles of flood debris to a temporary landfill.

(by Mark Geary, KCRG-TV, Cedar Rapids)