Flood in Fayette County, Iowa

After the initial flash flooding, the flood waters lingered across much of Fayette County into Sunday, July 23rd. On Saturday morning, numerous roads were reported to be impassable in Fairbank because of the flood waters. Sandbagging was occurring around several businesses. State Highway 3 was closed between Oelwein and Oran. In the town of Fayette, around 80 percent of the homes had water in their basements and a park in town was closed because of the flooding.

A round of thunderstorms moved across northeast Iowa during the morning and afternoon of July 21st. These storms dropped locally heavy rains that produced some flash flooding in Fayette and Chickasaw Counties. Most of the flash flooding was limited to water over some roads northwest of Westgate (Fayette County) and south of Boyd (Chickasaw County). A second round of storms moved across the region during the evening of July 21st into the early morning of July 22nd. These storms produced heavy rains with totals of 4 to 8 inches common across Chickasaw into Fayette and Clayton Counties. The flash flooding caused numerous road closures across Clayton County with rock and mud slides occurring. A few rescues had to be performed near Guttenberg (Clayton County). In Fredericksburg (Chickasaw County) water from the East Fork of the Wapsipinicon River was over U.S. Highway 18 and sandbagging had to be done in New Hampton (Chickasaw County). A road was partially washed out northwest of Nashua (Floyd County). The Governor of Iowa declared a disaster proclamation for Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Floyd and Winneshiek Counties. The President of the United States issued a disaster declaration for Allamakee, Chickasaw, Fayette and Mitchell Counties.