Cedar River receding after bifurcating Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The flooding Cedar River cut Charles City in half Monday morning, forcing the closing of both the Brantingham Street Bridge and the Main Street Bridge, the only two routes within the city limits for vehicles to travel between the north and south sections of the city.

Brantingham Bridge was reopened at about 1:30 p.m. Monday, but the Main Street Bridge will need to be inspected before it is reopened, according to City Administrator Steve Diers.

Diers, who is also the Floyd County emergency communications director, said in an 8 a.m. Monday report on the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency Facebook page, that the Iowa Department of Transportation closed the Brantingham bridge at 1:45 a.m. Monday.

Diers said the Main Street Bridge was also closed as a precautionary measure.

“There’s cracks in the bridge – there’s always been cracks in the bridge – and some of them might be getting worse,” he said about the Main Street Bridge, adding that it’s difficult to assess the situation now because much of the support structure is underwater.

“There’s a lot of stuff coming down the river over the dam,” he said, so as a precaution the bridge was closed.

At a 5 p.m. Monday flooding update, Diers said the Cedar River had crested and was falling.

“We will come out of major flood stage sometime in the early morning hours of Tuesday,” he said.

He said it was a great relief to have Brantingham Bridge reopened, but Main Street Bridge will likely be closed a few more days until it can be inspected.

“We’ll need to get water levels down even farther to get a good look at that,” Diers said, but ”we’re all heading in the right direction.”

“Once inspections are done on the Main Street Bridge and it looks to be OK, we’ll be able to open that bridge as well,” he said.

Preparations for the floodwaters began on Saturday as the Emergency Operations Center set-up in the Hy-Vee parking lot to coordinate the distribution of sandbags to the community.

While Party in the Park may have been canceled on Friday, City Administrator Steve Diers proclaimed it was “Party in the Parking Lot” as the community came together to fill bags with sand as piles were dumped by the truckload. Area businesses brought out food and drinks for the volunteers as they loaded up literal tons of sand to help their neighbors keep the oncoming floodwaters at bay.

At his 5 p.m. update, Diers said the city will be setting up a drop-off site at the Shaw Avenue Dump Site for people to return sandbags once they are no longer needed. Whether the bags have been exposed to river water or are still dry they will be handled the same way, he said.

On Sunday, the rising waters had begun to escape the river’s banks, resulting in road closures as the Charles City Police Department patrolled the city to block off unsafe streets.

The Cedar River crested at 7 a.m. Monday at 21.57 feet and was forecast to be below major flood stage of 18 feet by about 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Water Prediction Service of the National Weather Service. The highest mark ever recorded was 25.3 feet on June 9, 2008.

This flood’s crest ranks as the fifth highest recorded in Charles City, topping the previous fifth highest of 21.44 feet recorded on Aug. 16, 1993.

The Cedar River was forecast to be below moderate flood stage (15 feet) by about 1 p.m. Tuesday and below minor flood stage (9 feet) by 9 or 10 p.m. Tuesday.

While both the Main Street and Brantingham bridges were closed, people who needed to travel between north Charles City and south Charles City had the option of walking or biking across a pedestrian bridge over the river – although the Cable-Stay Suspended Bridge was closed – or driving through the city of Floyd or Nashua and crossing the Cedar River at the bridges there.

While both vehicle bridges were closed the Charles City Fire Department and AMR ambulance service had crews stationed on both sides of the river to respond to emergencies, Diers said.

Diers said MidAmerican Energy shut off natural gas lines to some customers Sunday afternoon and evening, but the only flood-related power interruption was turning off the electricity at Sportsmen’s Park.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said Sunday she has submitted a request for an expedited presidential major disaster declaration for Iowa counties faced with flooding, including Floyd County.

According to the governor’s office, Reynolds’ letter asks for activation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Individual Assistance Program, and U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans for Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Plymouth and Sioux counties.

The letter also requests the activation of the FEMA Public Assistance Program for Floyd, Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Hancock, Humboldt, Kossuth, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Pocahontas, Sioux, Webster, Winnebago, Woodbury, Worth and Wright counties.

The FEMA Public Assistance Program provides funds that can be used to rebuild damaged infrastructure that may include roads, bridges, culverts and other public facilities, or to cover costs of emergency work during, and debris removal after, severe weather.

Reynolds also requested funding to conduct hazard mitigation activities for the whole state.

— Press reporter Travis Fischer contributed to this report.