(Radio Iowa) – Governor Reynolds has declared 15 counties state disaster areas and many of those counties had significant flash flooding from storms that moved through on Monday and Tuesday. Algona got five inches of rain, flooding roads and basements. Flash flooding in the Newton area stranded vehicles and closed roads, including a portion of Highway 5. Applington-Parkersburg and Dike-New Hartford schools are closed today (Wednesday) due to flooding. In Clay County, there was rain and hail on Monday night, then more rain on Tuesday. Clay County Emergency Management director says the small community of Webb and surrounding areas were hard hit.

“They received a substantial amount of rain down on some rural areas in southeastern Clay County, so there’s some roads closed down there,” he says. “It’s just a high water table right now and we need to be aware of it.” Strong winds last (Tuesday) night broke the Queen Two cruise boat loose on West Lake Okoboji. Jon Pausley, manager of the Arnolds Park Amusement Park, says there’s no visible damage above the water line.

“We had the Queen tied up to the dock there,” Pausley says. “The rope that was holding the backside broke and then the wind just started turning it sideways and even though we had a bunch of us from the boardwalk and bunch of our staff come down trying to pull it back in or get close enough to hop somebody on board to turn the engines on and push it back, the wind just kept beating up against it and turned it sideways against the dock, took out a little of the dock.” It appears the keel of the boat is sitting on the beach. A barge service is going to try to pull the boat back to the dock today (Wednesday).

“Then assess what, if any, damage is there,” Pausley says. “We certainly know we lost some paint. That can be fixed, so we’re hopeful nothing else underneath is going to be an issue.” The Queen Two underwent a million dollar renovation this winter and its first excursion of the season is scheduled this Saturday.