Historic flooding hits Midwest, devastating towns like Spencer, Iowa and Blue Earth County, Minnesota. Thousands of homes destroyed, infrastructure damaged, and debris cleanup efforts underway. Residents and businesses face long road to recovery with FEMA assistance.
Photo courtesy of Blue Earth County
Demolition of The Dam Store near the Rapidan Dam in Minnesota.
The community of Spencer, Iowa, thought it was ready for what the Little Sioux River threatened — about 17 to 18 ft. But then the river gauge became submerged and went offline, and the rising flood waters hit with little warning.
"The Ocheyedan River joins the Little Sioux River just slightly south of town," said Dan Gifford, city manager of Spencer. "Both of those were at record levels. I think our previous record was set in 1953 at 21 feet, and this went over top that by a foot. So, it was a foot higher than the 500-year predicted flood level. A person that's familiar with disaster and has worked with the state of Iowa in the upper level of the National Guard with many, many disasters in the United States thinks our devastation is somewhere between Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina. It's not just the flood, it's a complete disaster."
Photo courtesy of Iowa DOT
Thousands of homes in the town of 12,300 in Clay County lost their basement to water and demolition of the homes that can't be saved has not yet begun, Gifford said. But while clean-up has been ongoing for weeks, with the Iowa DOT and private contractors working round-the-clock, they've only made a dent in the debris.
"We're still in debris pick-up mode," Gifford said. "There's still a lot to do. The Iowa state DOT disaster team came in with five teams of 10 trucks each, one skid loader and one front end loader each. They worked for 10 days, 7 days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day."
The state teams hauled as much of the debris as possible to the landfill 15 mi. away, but without tarps for the semi-trailers, they had no choice but to leave much behind.
"We created two big piles of debris," Gifford said. "We're getting a couple of low-speed grinders in so we can grind that up into smaller pieces, tarp it and take it to the landfill. That way, we won't take up so much landfill space."
Two private contractors, Service Master and SERVEPRO, are now picking up where the state teams left off, but it's a huge undertaking, Gifford said. One of the dump piles is so large, Gifford couldn't even make a guess at its height.
"It makes full-size excavators look like toys," he said. "It's not garbage, it's people's stuff. It's very sobering. People from Iowa want to get past stuff fast, so we have people cutting out the bottom three feet of drywall and a lot of that material is in the pile too. You see the normal stuff you would find in a basement. There is a pretty good pile of appliances."
While residents took a hard hit, the business district on the south side of Spencer saw the biggest impact. As business owners clean up, many must make the decision of whether to rebuild again. Gifford suspects some will not, he said.
The Spencer City Hall did not escape the damage and staff is currently working under the hum and buzz of fans and humidifiers working to dry out the musty-smelling building.
About 115 mi. north in Minnesota, the people of Blue Earth County have been relying on heavy equipment for a variety of big jobs.
"We used some heavy equipment when we did removal of a house so it wouldn't go in the river," said Eric Weller, emergency management director. "We used heavy equipment to move rock to stabilize piers and remove some of the trees, and a couple of bulldozers and side dump trucks to haul 4,000 pounds of rip rap."
Photo courtesy of Senator Nick Frentz
The county is now awaiting word on how they will proceed with the Rapidan Dam and a nearby bridge, both undermined by the flood waters. The dam has not been functional for years and repairs are likely a long time in coming, Weller said. The bridge has been closed to both vehicles and pedestrians.
"We're at a standstill," Weller said. "It's regulated by FERC and so we're working with the federal government; it will take a long time to get through the paperwork and see our options and who is going to pay for it. The bridge, about 40-years-old, is separate, set off from the dam. It is important in our community for farming, going from one side to another. Without the bridge they must go to Mankato or down to Good Thunder. It is very inconvenient — 15 to 20 minutes to go around from one way to the other."
Meanwhile, in Spencer, the city is wasting no time moving forward to get their town back to something resembling normal.
"We are going to work on hurrying up and get something built," Gifford said. "FEMA is in town. They are helping. They have set up at the event center, which was not damaged. It's a one stop shop. People can come in and fill out applications and discuss their situation with FEMA live. They have quite a team here. In the end, I believe this flood will rank pretty high as a disaster in the country." CEG
Lori Tobias
Lori Tobias is a journalist of more years than she cares to count, most recently as a staff writer for The Oregonian and previously as a columnist and features writer for the Rocky Mountain News. She is the author of the memoir, Storm Beat - A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast, and the novel Wander, winner of the Nancy Pearl Literary Award in 2017. She has freelanced for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Denver Post, Alaska Airlines in-flight, Natural Home, Spotlight Germany, Vegetarian Times and the Miami Herald. She is an avid reader, enjoys kayaking, traveling and exploring the Oregon Coast where she lives with her husband Chan and rescue pups, Gus and Lily.
Read more from Lori Tobias here.
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