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Elkader community comes together to respond to flooding

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The city of Elkader, led by the Elkader Fire Department, came together over the weekend to fill and stack sandbags as the Turkey River rose—fueled by rounds of storms that dumped as much as eight inches of rain in northeast Iowa. (Photos by Willis Patenaude)

“The community response is always great," said Elkader Mayor Josh Pope. "Not only did we have people willing to donate equipment, supplies and manpower for sandbagging, we had others who donated food and drink. The sandbagging efforts are organized by our volunteer firefighters. The firefighters also work with the city departments such as police and public works to monitor the need for road closures, getting the word out to campers and residents and monitoring essential services such as our sewer lift stations.”

The Elkader Fire Department also worked through the night to install HESCO barriers in anticipation of the flooding, which was expected to crest at 24 feet.

Volunteers worked tirelessly to install the 300 feet of HESCO barriers and 1,300 sandbags along the river in case it crested higher than expected. The use of the barriers is relatively new and, according to assistant fire chief Caleb Shea, the department shortened the preparation time and the amount of sandbags needed. In the past, the city would’ve needed around 10,000 sandbags and it would’ve taken far longer than the three hours it took 12 to 14 volunteers to fill and set up the barrier.

According to the National Weather Service, the flood level peaked at 22.79 feet late Monday morning, well above the flood stage of 12 feet. Here, pedestrians watch the roiling river from the Keystone Bridge.

The flooding closed down South Main Street and South High Street, and Central School District was closed on Monday.

Congreswoman Ashley Hinson met with Elkader Mayor Josh Pope on Monday, discussing the flood and the mobilization efforts by the fire department and community.

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

 

It was Saturday at 11 a.m. when the Elkader Fire Department held a meeting with the city’s public works department to discuss expected flooding on the Turkey River. The National Weather Service was predicting a crest of 24 feet, 12 feet above flood stage at Elkader and four feet above major flood stage—fueled by storms from Aug. 27-28 that dumped as much as eight inches of rain in northeast Iowa. 

 

By 3 p.m. Sunday, mobilization efforts—including dump trucks, sandbags, barriers, shovels and sand “borrowed” from C.J. Moyna & Sons—were well underway, as community members made their way downtown to assist the fire department in any way they could.

 

When the announcement went out on social media about the mobilization efforts, it was a “white flag” moment, as mayor Josh Pope called it. It’s something the fire department has “unfortunately,” to use the mayor’s term, “become experts at.”

 

“We’ve been through this before. We know what to do, and we got a great team doing it,” said assistant fire chief Caleb Shea. 

 

“They’re so good at it at this point,” Pope added, as the two surveyed the Turkey River by Founder’s Park Monday afternoon. 

 

While the river never reached the expected crest of 24 feet, peaking at 22.79 feet around 11 a.m. on Monday, according to the National Weather Service, the level is likely to land around the fourth highest on record. 

 

While the fire department was busy installing barriers and sandbags, many businesses had to prepare as well. 

 

Brian Bruening, proprietor of Schera’s Restaurant, said they had to move everything out of the lower basement, which was flooded. The main restaurant dining area was a maze of cluttered equipment, and they were running sump pumps to help remove the water, but Bruening admitted the pumps were unable to “keep ahead.” They helped keep the flooding from being worse than it ordinarily would’ve been, however, and he noted it will make cleanup easier once the water level goes down. 

 

When asked how prepared he was, Bruening replied, “this is not my first flood. We were as prepared as we could be. It’s always a challenge, especially once they cut the power, because then all of a sudden our refrigeration is gone. Our freezer is gone. So we had to move perishables and stuff.” 

 

Bruening has not been able to assess the damage, waiting until the water level goes down. Because of the power being shut off, he expects to be closed for about 10 days, indicating he will need to do a full cleaning and scrub down on the refrigeration equipment before putting it back in use due to it being off for so long. 

 

Another business owner along Main Street that experienced basement flooding was Bahls Insurance. Owner Darlene Bahls talked about putting up railroad ties and sandbags against the back wall, moving odds and ends out of the basement, needing a generator to keep a computer up and running and using a sump pump to remove water. 

Bahls was in good spirits on Monday, talking about previous floods and joking that they try not to store things in the basement, but items always tend to find their way down there and get forgotten about. 

 

Chelsea Armstrong, owner of TD’s Sports Bar and Grille, took a different approach to preparing for the flood: waiting.

 

“I waited because I didn’t want to move everything unless I absolutely had to. So, I literally just waited to see what was going to happen,” she replied. 

 

While the patient approach paid off, Armstrong stated the business had minor flooding in the basement, but indicated it wasn’t anything the sump pump couldn’t keep up with. Armstrong also said TD’s doesn’t store anything in the basement, so she did not have to worry about moving equipment like some neighbors. 

 

One thing all three businesses had in common was how much they appreciated the response from the fire department and community when the mobilization efforts began and continued through the weekend. 

 

Armstrong described the fire department as “awesome,” and said community members helping one other is just what Elkader does.

 

Bruening applauded the mitigation efforts the city has made over the years and Bahls said the community and fire department “are just really great, very good, and always helpful in times like these.” 

 

When it came to the mobilization efforts, the community response was overwhelming. One volunteer was city council representative Tony Hauber, who was involved in the sandbagging effort.

 

“I was very impressed by the community response to the flood predictions. Seeing all of those people who took time out of their Sunday to go down and help fill and move sandbags filled me with an immense sense of pride in this community,” he commented. “The fire department did an excellent job in working and getting everyone organized to deal with the impending situation.”

 

Another city council member who took part was Daryl Koehn, who was on scene driving a dump truck during the night hours as firefighters employees from Moyna & Sons and the mayor worked tirelessly to install the 300 feet of HESCO barriers and 1,300 sandbags along the river in case it crested higher than expected. 

 

The use of the barriers is relatively new and, according to Shea, the fire department shortened the preparation time and the amount of sandbags needed. In the past, the city would’ve needed around 10,000 sandbags and it would’ve taken far longer than the three hours it took 12 to 14 volunteers to fill and set up the barrier. 

 

Shea expects the barriers will remain in place for a few more days while officials continue to monitor the river. 

 

Beyond the local response, Pope also mentioned others who helped.  

 

“We are fortunate to have the Clayton County Emergency Management Director, Sara Moser, who has access to supplies and experts to call on. Winneshiek County Emergency Management and Butler County Emergency Management both played a role in the preparations this weekend. If you have to be in this situation, we have the best community to be in because of the people and volunteers,” he remarked. 

 

The role played by both those counties, according to Shea, aided in the mobilization of flood efforts. The automatic sand bagging machine was provided by Winneshiek County and many of the HESCO barriers were supplied by Butler County. 

 

Pope provided a lengthy reply about the community’s efforts, stating, “The community response is always great. Not only did we have people willing to donate equipment, supplies and manpower for sandbagging, we had others who donated food and drink. The sandbagging efforts are organized by our volunteer firefighters. The firefighters also work with the city departments such as police and public works to monitor the need for road closures, getting the word out to campers and residents and monitoring essential services such as our sewer lift stations.”

 

“Although you don’t necessarily want to be an expert in the field of flood preparation, we are certainly lucky to have the volunteer fire department that we have because they are experts at this,” he added. 

 

As for Shea, he summed up the effort simply, stating, “We went up against the river and won.”

 

 


 

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson visited Elkader Monday afternoon, discussing the flood and mobilization efforts with mayor Josh Pope and assistant fire chief Caleb Shea. Hinson inquired about the damage, the sand bagging and the flood mitigation efforts. She commented on how fast and efficient the community was at preparing for the flood, calling it “Operation Warp Speed 2.0.” She also talked about working with Homeland Security and FEMA to broaden the definition of disasters, as well as basic disaster preparedness, securing resources when needed and flood containment and mitigation efforts. Hinson spotlighted mitigation efforts, stating her motto is, “Let’s not be pennywise and tom foolish,” because mitigation costs are always lower than the economic impact of recovery costs. Hinson also told the mayor that, as soon as the water goes down, if the city needed anything, to “give her a call.”

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