The Marshall County Board of Supervisors signed a disaster declaration Tuesday morning due to the impact of flooding in the area since last week.

The declaration reads:

“Marshall County, Iowa has suffered from widespread flooding that started on March 12, 2019 and continuing causing severe damage to public and private property and endangerment of health and safety of the citizens of Marshall County within the disaster area. Therefore, the County Board of Supervisors of Marshall County, Iowa has declared a state of emergency authorized under Iowa State Statute and will execute the expenditure of emergency funds from all available sources, the invoking of mutual aid agreements, and the applying to the State of Iowa for assistance.”

Also in the statement, county Emergency Management Coordinator Kim Elder said the flooding began with warming weather that caused the abundant snow on the ground to melt. Combined with heavy rain around the same time, Elder said “excessive run off” caused flooding of culverts, damage to roads and bridges, river flooding and ice jams.

The weather looks a lot less wet for the rest of the week in Marshalltown, with highs of over 50 degrees and clear skies predicted into the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Des Moines.

The National Weather Service also shows the Iowa River peaked at more than 20 feet late last week and has steadily come down to 17.6 feet as of Tuesday afternoon. That decreasing trend looks to continue into next week.

Conditions are even more severe in other parts of the state, particularly western Iowa along the Nebraska border, where extreme flooding of the Missouri River has displaced thousands of people.

——–

Contact Adam Sodders at (641) 753-6611

or asodders@timesrepublican.com