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Storm lights up, floods Floyd County

UPDATE, 9:43 a.m. Thursday: North Butler schools are closed today and Friday.

Nashua-Plainfield schools are closed today.


UPDATE 7:54 a.m. Thursday: The Charles City Police Department has sent out an emergency text alert asking residents not to travel on the north side of Charles City due to flooding over the roadways.

UPDATE 7:45 a.m. Thursday: Charles City Community schools are CLOSED today, due to flooding and impassable roads.


By Chris Baldus | editor@charlescitypress.com

Before the rain in Charles City reached torrential, the social media users were sharing a photograph by Ryan Kaiser of a funnel cloud.

“Wow!! This funnel could was seen at 4:45 p.m. on the south side of Charles City,” a post said.

Other reports of brief tornado touchdowns, high winds, hail and flash flooding filled National Weather Service local storm report on the La Crosse, Wis., office’s web stream. The reports came from trained weather spotters, law enforcement, fire departments and members of the public. This is a sampling: Beginning around 4 p.m., reports of high winds came in from Nora Springs to Marble Rock.

At 4:25 p.m., the Charles City Fire Department reported a 2-foot diameter tree down on a house.

At 5:06 p.m., 1 1/2 hail was reported by the public on social media in Rockford.

At 5:33 p.m., a brief tornado touchdown was reported by a trained spotter 3 miles southwest of Rockford.

At 6:20 p.m., a report relayed by the Marble Rock Fire Department said two to three machine sheds were destroyed southeast of Marble Rock.

At 6:34 p.m., law enforcement reported a brief tornado touchdown near Shadow Avenue and B60.

At 7:30 p.m., flash flooding was reported in Rudd and Rockford with water rushing over roads making them impassable. A poultry barn was reported underwater in Rudd.

At 7:44 p.m., law enforcement reported 70 mph wind west of Marble Rock.

At 8 p.m. a fire department report read “nearly every road across the southwest two-thirds of Floyd County is underwater with travel impossible.

At 11 p.m., a co-op observer reported heavy rain —5 inches — at the Iowa State Experimental Farm west of Nashua.

Radio scanner chatter throughout the night from Floyd County public works and emergency crew members warned each other about washed out roads and widespread flooding. Long swaths of Shadow Avenue were underwater. It was not unique.

Charles City Schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox announced just before 10 p.m. that classes for Thursday were going to be two-hours late because of flooding.

Nashua-Plainfield schools also announced a two-hour late start for Thursday.

Sandbags will be available for CC

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Charles City Fire Chief Eric Whipple issued a news release about the expected flooding and telling Charles City residents they will be able to get sand bags on Thursday in the Hy-Vee parking lot.

This is the release: Area rivers in Floyd County will be on the rise through Friday morning, including the Cedar, Shell Rock and Winnebago Rivers.

According to the National Weather Service, a general 3-4 inch rainfall is anticipated Wednesday evening across these river basins from Floyd County to the north. Some areas could receive even more rainfall over the next 12-24 hours.

With this amount of rainfall, the NWS has projected that the Cedar River in Charles City will crest in the MAJOR flood stage at 20.7 feet sometime Friday afternoon. Other Floyd County rivers will also likely flood. It is difficult to determine how severe the flooding will be on the Shell Rock and Winnebago rivers with the lack of river gauges upstream.

Charles City firefighters and police officers have been or will be going door to door on Wednesday to areas that will likely be affected by the flooding, to notify those residents and businesses of possible evacuations.

Sandbags will be available to Charles City residents ONLY, starting at 1 p.m. in the HyVee parking lot on Thursday. If you plan on picking up sandbags, be sure to bring with you people to help fill the sandbags at that location. Also, residents will be required to dispose of their own sandbags properly after the event.

If you live in or around a flood prone area, be aware of the weather forecast and be prepared to seek higher ground if necessary. Remember, do not drive through flooded roadways. The leading killer during flood or flash flood events occurs to drivers who drive through flooded roadways. Turn around, don’t drown!

Please refer to Floyd County’s website at floydcoia.org and the city of Charles City’s website at cityofcharlescity.org for more information. Future press releases will be distributed to local media as the situation warrants.

The impacts of Cedar River flooding at various levels in Charles City is documented on the National Weather Service, La Crosse office, website.

The river was at 5.32 feet as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

What to expect and when

This is what the NWS says to expect: 12 feet — The intersection of Riverside and Illinois Streets may be flooded.

15 feet — Leland Avenue floods, and flooding on Park Drive is likely.

17 feet — Residences south of Riverside may be flooded.

18 feet — 4th and South Grand Streets begin flooding.

19 feet — Brackett Street and Riverside at North Johnson are flooded. Also the Lions Field cottages are threatened.

19.5 feet — Riverside Drive at Iowa and Joslin Streets floods. Also Chautauqua Avenue floods and sandbagging is required.

20 feet — Clark Street at Leland floods and Court Street at Illinois floods.

21.5 feet — Clark Street at Brantingham floods and the Chautauqua Avenue lift station wet will requires sandbagging.

Shades of 2008, 2004

With the Cedar River in expected to crest at 7.3 feet above flood stage by 1 p.m. Friday, Charles City is flirting with history. Since the year 2000, the Cedar River has crested above 20 feet three times: once in 2004 (20.33) and twice in 2008 (20.12 and 25.33). The last time it breached 18 feet — which is considered major flooding — was in 2013, when it crested at 19.52.

Historic Crests

These are historic Cedar River crests recorded by the National Weather Service.

1.) 25.33 ft on June 9, 2008.

2.) 22.81 ft on July 21, 1999 3.) 21.64 ft on March 2, 1965 1. 16.82 ft on June 20, 2014 2. 19.52 ft on May 21, 2013 3. 15.41 ft on May 24, 2011

Storm lights up, floods Floyd County

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