Cardinal students help sandbag Eldon

A state already soaking wet received another deluge Tuesday night.

Fairfield's water department reported it received 3.46 inches of rain. Several of the city's streets had deep flowing water that caused motorists to take alternate routes.

Fairfield Streets Superintendent said a few spots, such as Stone Avenue between Ninth and 12th streets, were quite deep, but by the time a city crew arrived with barricades to close it, the water level had fallen. D Street between Lowe Avenue and the railroad tracks was flooded, but was not closed. Bisgard said the city did not have to close any roads from the flooding.

The situation was even direr for the towns along the Des Moines River. Bentonsport's Park was under water. A storm drain in Batavia couldn't handle the flow, causing water to rise so high it swallowed a few cars.

The city of Eldon issued a plea for help at 4 p.m. Tuesday to fill and move sandbags so the river didn't flood the town. The city asked Cardinal School District if any students could assisted, and the Comets answered the call.

Cardinal High School Principal Landon Miller said the high school baseball and softball teams were practicing indoors when he received the message from Eldon, so he asked them to lend a hand. Since Miller is also the high school's football coach, he enlisted the services of those athletes, too. Miller took a group of about 30 students into Eldon to move sandbags.

'I talked to someone from the city [of Eldon] this morning, and they are extremely grateful,” Miller said. 'I'm proud of our kids for stepping up when the town needed them.”

The flooding is so bad that the school called an emergency assembly this morning to brief the students on the situation and see if more of them could fill sandbags. Miller said about 50 students agreed to help.

The Comets are no strangers to community service. Last year, the students spent the last day of school cleaning up sticks and painting ballfields in the district's towns such as Eldon, Batavia, and Bladensburg. It will do that again on the last day of school this year, which is Friday.

'That takes a month to organize,” Miller said. 'We've never done anything this impromptu like we did yesterday.”

Jefferson County Engineer Scott Cline said the flooding forced a number of roads to close: 256th Street near Cedar Creek, 160th Street and Yarrow Boulevard. County employees not only installed signs to inform motorists of the closures but have also put up barricades to stop them from risking it.

'We also put up a barricade at the top of the hill at Mac Coon Access, so people don't have to drive down before realizing it's closed,” Cline said.