Clean up is underway in some areas of northeast Iowa as others continue to keep an eye on rising floodwaters.
Iowa Red Cross spokesman, Mark Tauscheck, says the city of Sumner was hit the hardest by floodwater as the power was knocked out.
“The backup for their power supply was also affected. So, the whole town was for a couple of days without power,” Tauscheck says. A couple of those days when the power was out were extremely warm, and he says they had 11 Sumner residents staying in the Red Cross emergency shelter through Monday.
“Pretty much the majority of homes in Sumner had some type of damage to their lower levels,” Tauscheck says. “A lot of it was sewer backup, a lot of sump pumps were not working without the electricity. A lot of it was floodwater as well getting in, they just had so much rain.” Tauscheck says many residents couldn’t believe how much rain they got.
“One woman there said she had a five-inch rain gauge and she emptied it twice and it was still raining. At least ten inches was what we heard from Sumner,” according to Tauscheck.
He says the Red Cross has been busy handing out cleanup kits to those hit by the flooding. “Between Sumner and Fredericksburg…we gave out 405 cleanup kits,” Tauscheck says. He says they also gave out numerous cleanup kits to Charles City residents.
Tauscheck says residents are finding more issues as they work to clean up. He says a lot of people are dealing with what is left over after the water goes down as there is a lot you can’t see in the floodwater that needs to be addressed. Tauscheck says anyone who has suffered flood damage and needs help should call the Red Cross.
“Just call their local Red Cross Chapter, that’s the best way to get started,” Tauscheck says. “We are still taking on cases. We don’t have any shelters open right now, but we are still taking on individual homeowner cases as needed. And we still are certainly getting a lot of calls from people who have been affected by the heavy rains.”
A flood warning from the National Weather Service remains in place for eastern Iowa as high water levels on the Wapsipinicon River wash downstream.