POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY, Iowa. (KMTV) — A third round of flooding has rocked the Missouri River this week due to record rainfall across South Dakota making its way down the river. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has issued a disaster proclamation for Fremont, Harrison, Mills and Pottawatamie Counties.
"It’s not going to be like a flash flood, mad rush type of event," Pottawatamie County emergency management director Doug Reed said.
In Pottawatamie County around noon Wednesday, officials were alerted of breaches in their levy systems.
"We had two breaches in our flood protections systems up North of Council Bluffs, up around the Honey Creek area," Reed said.
Officials say these breaches can happen for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, the flooding is expected to happen in about the same areas as the record-breaking March flooding.
“Unfortunately they’re kind of used to this too and they know how their property gets affected and some of the things that they need to do," Reed said.
If you've been affected by the flooding since March and see water creeping up in your neighborhood, officials do recommend evacuations.
“If water starts to come up ad start getting close to their property then they should go ahead and leave. If they need to to be in a safer area. Because once we lose these roads and they can’t get out and it’s difficult for us to get in that could be a problem if there’s an emergency or anything like that," Reed said.
Pottawatamie County has experienced new damage to their water draining systems and Mills County is still recovering from a previously damaged levee. They say this is not new to them and they are bracing.
“We had to evacuate we had to get people out on that second re-occurrence for water. This is a little different because it’s coming in at one source," Mills County emergency management director Larry Hurst said.
Both counties have issued our recommended evacuations. But officials say just use your best judgment. Avoid road closures as this round of flooding is expected to mostly affect roads and agriculture.
“Follow DOT’s posted detour instructions and don’t rely on your GPS," Reed said.
The flooding is expected to continue into Friday and crest Friday morning, slowly starting to recede by the end of the week.
Make sure you are signed up for your county's emergency alert systems for updates.
Pottawatamie County - "Pottawattame Alert" (pottcounty-ia.gov)
Mills County - "Mills Alert" (https://www.millscoia.us/index.php/mills-alert)
Harrison County - "Citizen Alert"(harrisoncountyia.org)
Fremont County - "Emergency Management" (https://www.co.fremont.ia.us/fremontcoemergencymanagement.htm)
