Last year at this time, residents of far western Iowa were preparing for a months long historic Missouri River flood. The Iowa Department of Transportation has documented the “story” of the flood, with a special emphasis on the flood’s impact on roadways.
D.O.T. spokesperson Dena Gray-Fisher the “storyfy” project takes viewers from the start of the flood to the “all clear.” The first road closure was in Sioux City on June 1, while the last road to be repaired and reopened came in November. Gray-Fisher remembers it as a very interesting six-month journey.
“It’s really an amazing story. We have narrated it with a lot of information with what was happening with the transportation system and included video, photos and a lot of news coverage,” Gray-Fisher says. Last year’s Missouri River flooding forced the closure of 77 miles of highways and interstates from Sioux City to Hamburg.
Many of the roads were reduced to rubble. Gray-Fisher says the story of the flood proves that the people living in the Midwest don’t give up easily. “We’ve come through so many crisis and emergency situations through our history and we inspired to do great things and we did in this instance. We recovered quickly from what really a devastating situation,” Gray-Fisher said.