Rains bring flooding, but the water is welcome in Belle Plaine

BELLE PLAINE — Strong winds and thunderstorms swept through the Iowa last week, bringing torrential rains and flooding.

While the precipitation caused creeks and rivers to overflow their banks and prompted the Iowa Department of Transportation to close Highway 21 south of Belle Plaine because of water over the road, it’s also helping refill Belle Plaine’s aquifers, alleviating a drought that has plagued the town.

“The rains are definitely helping our situation out immensely,” Belle Plaine City Administrator Stephen Beck said Friday.

  Buy Photo

The town received several inches of rain throughout the month of May which “helped to reconstitute the soil,” Beck said. Before that, the well field was so dry that it was filled with deep cracks.

“You could stick your hands in the crack. That’s how dry it was out there,” said Beck. “So now we have some mild flooding coming in. Our wetland is receiving the water very well.”

Though the area isn’t officially a wetland yet, it still acts as one, said Beck. The City received permission from Homeland Security earlier this year to undo some of the things that had been done to destroy the wetlands.

“We went out there and started reshaping the levy. … Redid a bunch of stuff that we didn’t have to have permitting for.” That prepared the land for the rains Belle Plaine has seen this month.

  Buy Photo

“After we tore down that one bad part of the levy, we built up some other berms … so we could capture water if it came in,” Beck said.

The state classified Benton and Tama Counties as exceptional drought areas, D4, last year, but that was downgraded to D3 because of spring rains. Before last week’s storms, Belle Plaine was still about 48 inches low on rainfall in the past five years, said Beck.

“I think it’s going to take a couple of weeks to soak in,” said Beck. “And that’s what we want. Because the earth is our filter.”

Residents of Belle Plaine have dealt with discolored water because of the drought conditions, and the city didn’t have enough water to flush the system and clear the water.

Because of recent rains, Belle Plaine will be flushing its hydrants this week,” said Beck.

Flooding

Water crossed some gravel roads along the Iowa River in southwest Benton and northwest Iowa Counties.

“The Iowa River is rising,” said Benton County Sheriff Ron Tippett Friday. “Do not drive through it.” While water across the roads may not be high, the roads could be washed out under the water.

“As the waters continue to rise, the number of places we’ll have and of course the length of some of the crossings get longer,” Tippet said.

Flooding in Benton County is common and mostly affects [Conservation Reserve Program] ground, said Benton County Emergency Management Director Scott Hansen. “It’s just river flood plain,” he said.

Benton County saw some tree damage during last week’s storms. A tree blew over onto a house in Atkins and a machine shed east of Atkins was damaged earlier in the week, said Tippett, but damage is not widespread.

“We’ve been lucky,” Tippett said.

Iowa County

Strong winds from Friday’s storm brought “a little bit of damage” to the North English area, said Iowa County Emergency Management Coordinator Josh Humphrey. Millersburg sustained wind damage in the previous storm. The county escaped tornado threats.

“We are going to have flooding for the next week or so,” Humphrey said.

“Most of the other rivers are back in their banks,” said Humphrey, but the Iowa River wasn’t expected to crest until Sunday.

“Anything from Marengo north and west, the roads will be closed by next week when it crests,” Humphrey predicted.

“As of right now, we’re supposed to get to 18-feet, 6 inches. That will put water up against the levy in Marengo.” Flood stage at Marengo is 15 feet.

As the river moves through, it’ll start to bring up water in the Amanas also, said Humphrey, but flooding shouldn’t do much damage there.

“That doesn’t take into account today’s storm,” Humphrey said Friday. Rainfall amounts ranged from ½ inch to an inch Friday, but two to six inches fell during the week. “That’s quite a lot of rain for a short period of time,” said Humphrey.

Kellogg and Marshalltown had about 10 inches, Humphrey said. “Ten inches of rain upstream is going to come to us eventually.”