Thunderstorms and heavy rain created flash flooding over parts of south-central and southeast Iowa overnight. The National Weather Service says Davis and Van Buren Counties may have been hit the hardest, with up to 8 inches of rain.
Bloomfield Deputy Police Chief Dave Davis says water covered city streets early this morning. He says up to three feet of rain water ran through some low-lying areas of town. The worst damage, however, occurred in rural areas of Davis County. Davis says farmfields along Fox Creek are completely swamped.
"We had some roadways out in the county that the water’s completely over the road and it’s actually washed a large very large culvert completely out from under a roadway," Davis said. The damage in town is likely limited to water in basements.
"I’m sure there was some basement flooding," Davis said. Other rainfall estimates include 7 inches in Centerville and around 5 inches in Warren, Marion and Monroe Counties. In Indianola, just south of Des Moines, police says a creek spilled out of it’s banks and briefly threatened a mobile home park.
Officers were in the process of alerting residents to get out of their homes, when the rain quit at 2 a.m., so no evacuation was needed. Another round of severe weather, that could pack hail and strong winds, is possible over the southeast half of the state this afternoon.