Residents of New Hartford in north-central Iowa are bracing for more flooding with heavy rain remaining in the forecast. Beaver Creek has risen to a depth of 12.3 feet in New Hartford, which is slightly above flood stage.
Residents in the area near Iowa Highway 57 have been asked to evacuate, while many others in the community have been put on alert that they may also need to move to higher ground if the creek continues to rise. An emergency shelter has been set up in the nearby town of Shell Rock.
The National Weather Service has a Flood Warning in place for Beaver Creek until later this morning. The Weather Service says that the water will begin receding later today, but additional crests are possible with more rainfall expected today and throughout the rest of the week.
Flash flooding caused the closure of many roads around the yesterday. In addition to having water over Highway 57 in New Hartford, at one point yesterday all of the major roads into and out of Parkersburg were closed. Highway 57 west has since reopened.
Flood warnings or flash flood watches are now posted in 92 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Many roads are washed over and closed, including about a dozen state and U.S. highways. National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Vachalek says more rain’s coming.
“We’ll have to keep our eye on the possibility of more heavy rainfall, especially tonight and tomorrow and over the next couple of days,” Vachalek says. “The actual system that’s producing all of this rain is not going to move east until about Friday afternoon or evening.”
Some areas of Iowa have gotten eight inches of rain since Friday.
By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls/Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City