Flash Flood — Winneshiek, Iowa

2016-08-23 to 2016-08-24 · near Decorah Muni Arpt, Winneshiek, Iowa

Event narrative

Flood waters caused homes along Cedar Valley Road, southwest of Freeport, to be evacuated. Widespread flooding occurred in Freeport prompting the need for water rescues to be performed and for local law enforcement to not allow any travel in the area. River Road near Freeport was closed due to flooding from the Upper Iowa River that also caused a trailer court to be evacuated. The runoff from heavy rains also caused urban flooding to occur on the south side of Decorah where a vehicle was flooded in a parking lot. Numerous bridge approaches were lost in the flooding and lots of gravel was washed off roads.

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 → (43.2857, -91.7242)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 655764. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.