A collision with a deer resulted in a small in-car fire Monday morning in Potttawattamie County, but no one was injured. The Iowa State Patrol says 33-year old Andrea Root, of Persia, was traveling west on Interstate 80 south of Neola, when a deer ran out of a ditch. After the 1996 Buick Park Avenue Root was driving hit the animal, the woman pulled onto the shoulder of the road. While her car was stopped, a small fire developed in the steering column, but was quickly extinguished before it could spread to the rest of the interior.

The accident happened at around 6:45-a.m., Monday.

Funeral services will be held today (Wednesday) at 10:30-a.m.,  in the East Sac County High School in Lake View, for a Southwestern Community College student who was killed over the weekend in a northern Missouri crash, just two-miles south of the Iowa border. 18-year old Chrystal Olerich was a freshman volleyball player at Southwestern Community College, in Creston. Olerich, of Lake View, 22-year old 2009 SWCC grad Joshua Bix, of Hopkins, and one other person died Saturday, when the pickup truck they were passengers in rolled over. All seven people in the pickup, including the driver, were ejected from the vehicle, as it rolled. None were wearing their seat belts. 

Sheriff’s officials say the group had recently left a Halloween party. Alcohol was found at the scene. The driver, 22-year old Scott Woods, of Hopkins, MO., has been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of 2^nd-degree assault.

An SUV, street lamp and heavy piece of equipment were damaged during an accident Monday afternoon, in Atlantic. According to Atlantic Police, a heavy piece of machinery belonging to Western Engineering stalled while traveling uphill on 10^th Street, near the Cass County Community Center. 

When the machine began to roll backwards, traveling west on 10^th, the unidentified operator bailed out, fearing for his safety. The machine continued rolling down hill, while Western Engineering employees rushed to get people and vehicles out of the way. The machine rolled past the Whetstone car wash, struck a parked SUV and a light pole, and finally came to rest in a ditch at the intersection of Highway 6 and 10^th Street. 

No injuries were reported. Officials said the SUV and light pole sustained  a combined $7,000 damage, while damage to the piece of heavy equipment was estimated at $5,000.

Officials with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers say repairs on one of the main levees breached by Missouri River floodwaters this year can begin — as soon as the money is allocated. Corps spokeswoman Monique Farmer says all the preliminary work has been completed to rebuild the levee in the far southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg.  “The Corps of Engineers has pulled funds from other projects to go ahead and jumpstart construction efforts to begin the repair process,” Farmer says. “We are still waiting to find out how much money Congress is going to allocate so that we can continue that repair process.” Many have criticized the Corps for not taking action sooner to prevent the monumental flooding that lasted all summer. Farmer says she’s heard the Corps being blasted for months on the issue.

“There was nothing in our weather forecast that would have given us the indication back in the January-February timeframe or even the March-April timeframe that would have given us that red flag to say that we should increase releases,” she says. When the levee broke this summer, floodwaters rolled over and covered thousands of acres of farmland and destroyed many miles of key roadways, including sections of Interstates 29 and 680. Repairs to just three miles of I-680 are estimated at 19-million dollars.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)