Mason City leaders hopes water service can be restored in the town by sometime today. City administrator Brent Trout says round-the-clock work has been underway to get the water treatment plant operational after it was inundated by flooding on Sunday.
He says they’ve made significant progress and got a lot of the water and the mud out of the plant and are now trying to dry out the equipment to get it up and going. Trout says they’re still hoping to get the system up and running within a matter of hours to see if they can "charge" the system.
He says the water that will be in the system will not be able to be consumed but could be used for flushing toilets, bathing and washing clothes, until the tests confirm that the water is clean and can be consumed. Trout says as soon as city officials can get the water plant running, they’ll let the public know the exact timetable of re-establishing water service.
The Mason City City Council held a special session yesterday afternoon to discuss the emergency situation. City Planner Tricia Sandahl says 25 to 30 homes have been deemed uninhabitable, adding that anyone who has flood damage should keep a record of it as part of the county’s expected federal disaster declaration. If that federal designation happens, residents have the chance to have their flood-related expenses reimbursed.
The city’s Operations and Maintenance Manager says while the city’s water treatment plant was flooded on Sunday, another crisis -nearly- took place due to the flood. Bill Stangler says the river came within four inches of flooding the city’s wastewater treatment plant.