LE MARS, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — Towns in Plymouth County are taking precautionary measures after seeing yesterday’s flooding from up Floyd River.
Le Mars has been shutting down the northern county roads that intersect Highway 60 since Saturday morning and has bermed their airport taxiway in preparation for the incoming water.
“We’ve done a lot of precautions,” Le Mars Fire Chief David Schipper said. “We’ve got pumps in place, some sandbags, things like that to strategically ready and to support our city infrastructure and try to keep things working.”
But if levels exceed numbers from 2019, those preparations will be nearly ineffective.
“If that level comes, then we will lose our airport runway,” Schipper said. “We will lose a couple roads in town that will be covered. We will lose our little league fields, they will be underwater, and we’ll have to fight to keep our wastewater treatment plant operating.”
14 miles south, Hinton is preparing their bank of the Floyd River by shutting down the east side of C-60.
“We’ve got some bridge planks that we’re going to put across there, and then we weigh them with big concrete weights,” Hinton Fire captain Woody Skuodas said. “We’re going to sandbag in front of it on the water side and then encapsulate it all in plastic. We’re going to build it up about six feet to keep the water from coming into town.”
But if water breaks that barrier, residents should prepare.
“Residents on the east side of town could potentially lose power if water does start coming in,” Skuodas said. “We may have to start shutting down power to the east side of Hinton, but as of right now there’s no impact on them.”
Both fire departments would like to remind their residents to not drive through any flooded roads.