State emergency management officials say there have been relatively few concerns pop up today (Friday) as the floodwaters rose in western Iowa. Spokesperson Lucinda Robertson says there was a problem with the levee near Hamburg. Robertson says Fremont County requested bentonite to repair a small area in the northeast corner of the secondary levee, and they were able to obtain this material from Mills County and make the repair. Robertson says there have been no other concerns with any of the levees today. She did say there is some concern about people not being safe around the floodwaters.

Robertson says people who have been touring various areas have seen people walking or people playing in the floodwaters, which she says is “very dangerous.” She says the public should stay out of the floodwaters because of a variety of things that could happen to them. Robertson says mental health teams have been visiting the flood areas, and in some cases residents have seemed to be oblivious to the disaster around them.

She says the crisis counselors visiting Council Bluffs estimated that people in half the homes they visited were unaware that there was the potential for flooding in their neighborhood. Robertson made her comments during a daily update from the state Homeland Security Emergency Management Division.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)