Des Moines, Iowa Residents Forced to Deal with the Aftermath of Flooding
August 13, 2010
Some communities are accustomed to water rising more than they would like to see. It has flooded at Des Moines’ Country Estate Village before – many times in fact but residents there are saying that it has never been like this. Some residents in this mobile home community say they awoke to a foot of water inside their homes on Wednesday morning. Many found their cars submerged in water in the morning when they awoke and they all were being greeted by officials warning them to evacuate their homes and to seek shelter elsewhere. Even the record 1993 floods pale in comparison to this and residents are trying to come to terms with all that was lost. Emotions are running high in this community as they are elsewhere in central Iowa that is dealing with the aftermath of heavy flooding.
The Des Moines, Iowa area has been hammered with eight inches of rain since last Saturday. The heaviest rains fell overnight following daytime weather conditions that were very hot and humid. Residents throughout central Iowa are feeling very miserable as they are being forced to deal with horrible weather and flooding in their homes and businesses. On East 35th Street in Des Moines it looked like a lake between Ovid ad Hull Avenues with water completely submerging several homes there.
In nearby Ames, things are just as bad if not worse. This city of 55,000 which is just a half an hour’s car ride from Des Moines is without drinking water because a total of eight water mains broke due to the heavy flooding. Residents lined up for bottled water at sites throughout this college town on Thursday as city officials urged them to use as little water as possible until the water lines can be repaired and the system restored. Residents are being told that they can drink the water from their taps if they boil it first, but officials are imploring that they should limit such use because it will slow the repair efforts.
Since last Saturday, portions of central Iowa have been socked with about eight inches of rain. This week a series of hot, humid days were followed by nights consisting of fierce rains that pounded the state, including the greater Des Moines area. Record water levels on the Four Mile and Walnut Creek on the west side of the city forced evacuations in the surrounding neighborhoods. The city’s sewer network has been affected with about 450 reports of sewer backups into basements by Wednesday afternoon.
