Onsite in Sioux Rapids

The can-do spirit is helping Sioux Rapids residents cope with the most disastrous flood in memory. “The town reacted immediately,” said B.J. Habben Sunday afternoon over the brrr of an industrial pump a friend loaned him to remove water from his basement.

The race was on trying to beat water entering the house from the south. If the level rose too high, Habben’s electrical panel would be ruined. “I don’t know if the basement will collapse,” he added.

He said his house would be a lost cause without help from friends Evan and Andy Scott and their dad Scott.

Habben also praised the local firefighters who worked alongside volunteers Saturday night furiously sandbagging Main Street.

Firefighter Dennis Williams — actually last year’s Iowa Firefighter of the Year —talked about the “fail” Saturday night.

“At 10:30 (p.m.) one berm failed,” he said. “Then we went to move it back.”

Water inched westward up Main Street as the firefighters and over 100 volunteers built the berm. In the end the flood would overtake both berms, ending about a block west of the Sioux Theatre, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The berms worked in 1993, explained Dennis, the year of the worst flooding in memory. That year the water only advanced to Sioux Lumber.

He got to bed around midnight, but was awakened for a fire call in the middle of the night. A basement wall collapsed and broke a gas line.

This was all after a day of going home to home, checking on residents and alerting them of the advancing danger of the flood waters. Thankfully no residents were trapped or stranded, or even hurt.

People in the 30-40 homes evacuated either left town in campers, went to stay with relatives or traveled to Storm Lake where a shelter was designated at Buena Vista University. BVU partnered with the Buena Vista County Emergency Management Agency to set up the shelter arrangement.

With two hours of sleep, Dennis was busy Sunday, the next day, volunteering with the water distribution. Hy-Vee donated a semi trailer load of bottled water that residents could pick up in front of First Lutheran Church. Water may be picked up throughout the week from 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

The church was a natural place for the distribution, said Angie Christian, longtime Sioux Rapidian, who agreed to take over the job of volunteer coordinator. “They needed someone to organize volunteers,” she said. She doesn’t have to go back to work right away because she works at a law firm in Spencer, where the flooding is even worse.

Through the Facebook page “Sioux Rapids Flood Update,” Angie asked for volunteers for the sandbagging effort. “As soon as it went up I had 20 or 30 messages,” she said.

Angie said it was difficult to see so many people with serious damage to their homes. She said she was glad to help. “I didn’t lose a thing.”

Among the businesses in standing water were Roling Signs, Dollar General, Keene Chiropractic, Sioux Rapids Auto Sales, Hondo’s Sales and Service, and First State Bank. 

Also running on little sleep was BVCEMA Coordinator Aimee Barrett. She tended to a long list of tasks, like placing port-a-pots around town to ease the strain on the sewer system.

She put out the word for people to document damages to their homes, to take lots of pictures, to be prepared to apply for benefits.

Aimee is preparing for disaster cleanup. Damaged items need to be placed on the curb in separate piles:

• Garbage (mattresses, furniture)

• Household hazardous waste (paints, solvents, herbicides, fertilizer)

• Appliances, electronics, TVs, monitors, tires

• Scrap metal

• Tree limbs and trimmings

Among the people cruising around town in side by sides Sunday were Randy Koenig of the public works department and Kelly Snyder, BV County supervisor and Sioux Rapids resident. “We need to make sure they know we’re here for them,” said Kelly.

And Randy joked, “Do you know what the VOB is?”

Of course, the Valley of Beauty, Sioux Rapids’ nickname.

“It will be back to the VOB.”