‘I lost everything,’ Rock Valley resident says as more flooding expected across Iowa

ROCK VALLEY — The Rock Valley Fire Department told Jerald Hoogendoorn he had minutes to leave his house early Saturday morning before the floodwaters overtaking the town also overtook him.

“I only had five minutes to get across the street or else I would be swept away,” Hoogendoorn said Monday.

He had no time to gather any of his personal belongings and still had on the same clothes he was wearing when he fled his house. His 1897 home currently sits on five to six wooden posts as the floor began to buckle from water damage. He can’t open one of the doors because the water pressure is so strong it jammed it.

When asked what the days were like since, Hoogendoorn began to cry.

“I lost everything,” Hoogendoorn said. “You just can’t imagine what goes through your head.”

Hoogendoorn and his family started the long process of cleaning up Monday after historic flooding hit the town of about 4,100 people in northwest Iowa over the weekend, prompting emergency evacuations and shutting off water and power. One person is missing in Rock Valley, officials said Monday.

Days of heavy rainfall have pushed rivers to record levels across northwest Iowa, starting Friday. On Monday, the Red Cross reported more than 960 people had stayed at six shelters across the region since flooding began.

Travel was not advised in Lyon, Sioux, O’Brien, Clay, Emmet, Dickinson, Cherokee and Plymouth counties Monday due to flooding.

More: Flooding updates: One missing in Rock Valley as Correctionville nears ‘flood of record’

Tiny Correctionville, a town of about 766 residents 30 miles east of Sioux City, is under a flood warning until late Wednesday. The National Weather Service said the expected crest in Correctionville “approaches the flood of record.”

“We are reaching new levels that has never been seen in the city before,” the city posted on Facebook on Monday morning, shortly before it lost power. But officials weren’t sure how deep the water was because the monitor at the bridge had stopped working, mayor pro tem Nathan Heilman said.

MidAmerican did not give an estimate when the power would be restored, however, officials are trying to reroute power from a different substation, he said. The city’s substation was surrounded by water as of early Monday afternoon.

Residents were asked to limit water usage and urged people to monitor updates for potential evacuations. Emergency power was set up at the community building for air conditioning as temperatures also soar to the high 90s.

Record-breaking water levels in the Big Sioux River caused the collapse of a BNSF railroad bridge between North Sioux City in South Dakota and the Riverside neighborhood of Sioux City on Sunday.

“That is the main bridge going into Iowa that a lot of commodities and different materials move on throughout the state,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in a news conference Monday, where she also announced one person has died in her state. “That’ll impact us for many, many months to come.”

North Sioux City received the brunt of the flooding. An undetermined number of homes along North Shore Drive were hit by rushing waters, Noem said, with some residences considered lost. Union County Emergency Manager Jason Westcott said the rapid influx of floodwaters hit the area in the span of about 30 minutes.

The Big Sioux River at Riverside on the Iowa side of the river crested at 45 feet around 8 a.m. Monday morning — seven feet higher than the previous record of 37.7 feet, according to a news release from Sioux City. Mandatory evacuations were put in place for areas near South River Drive began to overtop the levee in a low-lying area. City officials said they could quickly ask others to leave the area.

Iowa officials say flooding in the state is far from over.

“This flood is not done,” John Benson, Iowa Department of Homeland Security director, said at a news conference in Rock Valley. “You’re on the downhill slide here, but the rest of the state, maybe isn’t going to be as bad as it was here, but they’re going to have their own unique challenges.

“That’s going to be both ends from the Mississippi all the way to the Missouri and most everything in between is going to get into a flood stage. So the state is not done with this and floods are dangerous.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds said she signed a pre-emptive disaster declaration for the five counties downstream on the Missouri River on Monday morning. They include Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, and Pottawattamie counties. They are added to the 21 counties already under a disaster declaration.

“So that they can start preparing and get ready,” said Reynolds, who also met with officials in Hawarden, Rock Rapids, Spencer and Cherokee on Monday. She toured damage with Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, Benson and Congressman Randy Feenstra, who lives in Hull, a small town that also experienced flooding.

Meanwhile, 12 rivers in north central Iowa are under flood warnings, including in Cedar Falls, Fort Dodge, Charles City and Mason City.

The Des Moines River in Fort Dodge is predicted to crest at 19.5 feet on Wednesday, which would be the city’s third highest flood on record. Fort Dodge City Manger David Fierke said Avenue B by the city’s wastewater treatment plan is already closed and flooded, with four to five houses cut off from getting out by normal means.

500 homes flood in Rock Valley as residents wait for water, power

The most dramatic situation so far may have been in Rock Valley back in Iowa, where as much as 15 inches of upstream rain over the previous 72 hours sent the Rock River surging to a record depth of more than 27 feet. That was 5 feet over the previous record and 8 feet above major flood stage, 19 feet, according to the National Water Prediction Service.

Across downtown Rock Valley on Monday, neighborhoods were caked in slimy mud from receding waters. One neighborhood about four blocks north of Main Street still had water several feet deep in the middle of the street, inundating homes and cars left in the waters.

A nearby church had portions of its interior carpet strewn across its parking lot drying.

Rock Valley economic development director David Miller said that early on Friday, the city added 16,000 sandbags to its levee system in less than six hours. Those ran about 4,000 feet long and added 1.5 to 3 feet to the top of the levee, Miller said.

The city earlier reported the river caused a levee breach. Miller clarified that the levee held, but 3 to 5 feet of water overtopped the levee.

“We didn’t have any levee breach that we’ve seen,” Miller said. “The water was just that high of a level.”

About 500 homes were inundated with water, Miller said. About 150 of those homes had “main floor” damage, he said. Areas near Main Street were heavily impacted by floodwaters. About 75 small businesses in “all directions” were impacted, Miller said.

Rock Valley Public School and Rock Valley Christian School were “heavily impacted by the floodwaters,” Miller said. Hegg Health Center, a hospital, was evacuated about four hours before the levee overtopped, Miller said. Patients were relocated to nearby Hull.

Water and sewer systems are down in Rock Valley. No timeline for getting water and sewer systems operational exists, but the city hopes to get them back online as fast as they can, he said.

Outside of City Hall there were several pallets of bottled water stacked to help residents.

“Our health and safety of our citizens is our main priority. We’ve gone through enough things, we don’t want to risk their help,” Miller said.

Rock Valley Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo said that shower trucks were on their way into Rock Valley. In other places, portable toilets are being set up for residents to use for the time being.

“They’re coming in, they’re not here yet,” Van Otterloo said. “But we’re working on it, we’re working on it.”

The state is working on getting at least two wells near Rock Valley online, Reynolds. Tests for bacteria and viruses are ongoing, she said.

The governor was not aware of any fatalities as of Monday afternoon.

“These waters rise so rapidly,” Reynolds said. “There’s just not a lot of time to respond. The coordinated effort that took place, we’ve really been very fortunate.”

Homeowners, volunteers begin long cleanup process in Rock Valley

Carla Winder made the nearly four hour drive from Minneapolis to get to her childhood home in flood-devastated Rock Valley on Sunday, once she realized roads into the town were passable.

Winder’s 87-year-old mother, Elaine Bolkema, started seeing water in her home on 15th Street at about 2 a.m. Saturday.

Waters rose to counter high. Everything on the counter and above stayed dry. But everything else, including drawers full of plastic bags, dripped as volunteers cleaned the home Monday morning, when there was still water in the basement and outside it was up to the window line.

Sentimental pictures of Winder’s late father, who died 10 years ago, that were hung on the walls were salvageable, but photo albums are underwater.

“My mom moved here right when they got married,” she said. “This is the only home she’s lived in as an adult.”

Larry Vanveldhuizen, Winder’s cousin, said floodwaters have never threatened the home, despite occasional flooding in Rock Valley historically.

“Fifty-eight years I’ve known this house,” Vanveldhuizen said. “Never a drop of water here.”

One-by-one volunteers pulled boxes filled with clocks, flowers and other trinkets from the home between 8:30 and 10 a.m. Monday. A sign under a birdhouse in the entrance still read “Welcome” as volunteers came and went. Volunteers pulled out water-soaked things like tables, chairs and couches. A washer and dryer sat on the back of a trailer.

They tried to joke around where they could.

A van full of volunteers from The Foreign Candy Co. in nearby Hull drove to Rock Valley Monday morning to help, despite extensive flooding in their own hometown.

Mandy Fisher, who works in accounts payable for The Foreign Candy Company, had 2 feet of water in her home in Hull about 8 miles east of Rock Valley. But she said that people in Rock Valley were far worse off as she rode in a van to head to her clean up destination at Winder’s mother’s home.

“The water has receded, we’ve got everything pumping,” Fisher said of her home. “These people have it a lot worse.”

When Fisher arrived at the home she was shocked by what she saw.

“Everything is destroyed,” Fisher said.

Les Vanrookel works in purchasing for the candy company and also volunteered in Rock Valley. In Hull, the rainwater got into the sewer system and backed up drains.

“So the drains in people’s basements can’t drain because the sewer line is full,” Vanrookel said. Vanrookel’s home did not flood, but he helped elderly people with 6 to 8 inches of water in their homes, he said.

“It’s devastating,” Vanrookel said. “Some of these people don’t have the means to do anything on their own. At that point it’s just salvage what you can, get what you can up in the air that’s of value.”

Vanveldhuizen himself lives on a farm 1.5 mile south of nearby Doon in Lyon County. His neighbor’s home flooded for the fourth time in 10 years and he will not move back. Vanveldhuizen’s son-in-law’s farm south of Doon flooded.

His son-in-law owns 110 head of cattle, who stood for 24 hours in more than 5 feet of water, their heads just above it, Vanveldhuizen said. Only two cows died, he said.

It was dry on his son-in-law’s farm at 10:30 p.m. Friday. By 12:45 a.m., his son-in-law called Vanveldhuizen and told him the family needed help escaping floodwaters.

When Vanveldhuizen arrived water was knee-high. By the time they left it was chest-high.

“It was just coming up so fast,” Vanveldhuizen said. “My grandkids were in that house. I didn’t give a s—,” he said of his thinking while walking through it.

Reporters Celia Brocker and José Mendiola and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader contributed to this story.

Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, [email protected] or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Rock Valley, IA cleans up from historic flooding as more is expected