Flash Flood — Winneshiek, Iowa

2016-08-23 to 2016-08-24 · near Calmar, Winneshiek, Iowa

Event narrative

Runoff from heavy rains caused flooding to occur in and around Calmar, Fort Atkinson and Spillville. The flood waters caused the basement of one house to collapse in Calmar. Cars became stranded near U.S. Highway 52 around Calmar with one person having to stand on top of a car to get out of the flood waters. Rogers Creek near Fort Atkinson went out of its banks with water over several secondary roads. Flooding also occurred along Bohemian Creek in the western part of the county. Flood waters were knee deep in some residences and caused evacuations to occur near Ludwig County Park and County Highway B16 was closed due to the flood waters northwest of Spillville. Sandbagging efforts in Spillville had to be stopped because the water was rising too fast on Bohemian Creek and the Turkey River. The flood waters from the Turkey River isolated Spillville and prevented anyone from leaving or entering the town. One bridge near Spillville sustained damage from a tree swept up in the flood waters. Early estimates by the mayor of Spillville indicated 9 homes were seriously affected with water on the first floor and another 20 to 25 sustained less damage with water mainly in the basements.

Wider weather episode

Repeated rounds of thunderstorms with heavy rains moved across portions of northeast Iowa during the evening of August 23rd into the early morning hours of the 24th. This heavy rain produced flash flooding across portions of Mitchell, Howard, Chickasaw, Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties. One person drowned north of Lawler (Chickasaw County) when a vehicle was swept off the road by flood waters from the Little Turkey River. Two people had to be rescued from a cabin near Lansing (Allamakee County). Flood waters caused a basement to collapsed in Calmar (Winneshiek County) and evacuations were performed east of Decorah (Winneshiek County) because of rapidly rising flood waters along the Upper Iowa River. A Flash Flood Emergency was issued for these extreme events. Numerous roads were covered by flood waters in Mitchell County where sandbagging efforts occurred near Osage. Several schools had to close on the 24th because of the flooding. The Governor of Iowa issued a disaster proclamation for Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Floyd, Howard, Mitchell and Winneshiek Counties. Damages from the flooding to public infrastructure was estimated at $2.4 million for Winneshiek County and another $1 million for Decorah (Winneshiek County).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.1925, -91.8536)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 655763. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.