While water levels on the flooded Missouri River are dropping, officials want safety awareness to remain high. This week’s rain prompted flash-flooding in southwest Iowa which led to building collapses, evacuations and daring rescues of trapped residents in the Council Bluffs area. Brigadier General John McMahon, of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, says the public can’t let down its guard.

“I would caution everybody that we have to continue to be very vigilant in so far as the risks associated with this flooding,” General McMahon says. “The water is still high, it’s moving fast and there’s erosion and other effects. We’ve got to be vigilant in terms of how the levees, both the temporary and the permanent ones, are performing. We’re not out of the woods yet.” Releases of water from upriver reservoirs, like Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, South Dakota, are being cut back daily. That process started last Friday and will continue through month’s end. Still, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard (DO-guard) warns that significant danger lurks as the release levels drop. He says the next week or so will be crucial.

“If there is going to be a catastrophic failure of any levee, it probably could occur during that time,” Governor Daugaard says. “We want to urge our citizens not to become complacent, which is easy to do, because they see the end in sight, the light at the end of the tunnel.” Daugaard says residents in all states along the Missouri River need to remain at the ready for potential risks.

“We really have to be careful as the subjacent weight of the water draws away, the super-saturated soils that make up those levees could slough,” he says. “It’s very important that we have vigilance on those levees during this next ten-day period and not allow our citizens to become complacent.” Iowa’s Governor Branstad met in Omaha last week with his counterparts from a half-dozen other Missouri River states to discuss avenues to prevent a repeat of the summer-long flooding. While the water has been high more than two months already, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon says it could be October before the flooded waterway returns to normal.

“When you have a system this charged, it’s important for the public to know they always need to be careful,” Governor Nixon says. “We’ve lost a National Guardsman coming back from duty, we’ve lost a trooper that we’re still searching for. It’s a very dangerous river. Everybody out there should be well aware of the danger and the power of this much water moving this quickly. No, this is not over, not until it gets back inside its banks and it’s a long way from getting there.”

Releases from Gavins Point topped out around 160-thousand cubic feet per second (CFS) — or around one-point-one million gallons per second. By month’s end, the releases should be down to 90-thousand C-F-S. Those reductions will halt on September 1st, allowing the Corps to inspect the system’s levees and dams.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad was in Harlan Tuesday, touting his administration’s accomplishments on the jobs front, and telling locals what else needs to be done to get more Iowans back to work. His visit was part of Branstad’s “Jobs for Iowa” tour, and are a continuation of the theme he and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds began before they were elected.

Speaking to a crowd of about 50 people at the Petersen Family Wellness Center in Harlan, Tuesday, Branstad said he wants to reduce commercial property taxes. He and Reynolds spelled out their accomplishments since taking office, such as getting a two-year budget passed during the contentious 2011 legislative session. But commercial property taxes were not reduced, and that’s something Branstad long has said he wanted done in order to stimulate economic development.

While the focus of Tuesday’s Town Hall meeting essentially focused on jobs and the economy, when it came time for questions from the audience, the first two pertained to education, and allowed the governor to promote his plans to attract better entry-level teachers and pay the best teachers more. He acknowledged it will cost more, especially in terms of teacher salaries, but Branstad added the state will make it harder to get into the teaching profession.

62-year old Paul Leinen, of Harlan, the former owner of a farm supply store in Portsmouth, asked Branstad about government regulations. Branstad said he had replaced many of the top people in state government departments, such as the Department of Natural Resources, and expects them to work in a more collaborative manner than their predecessors had. Leinen told the Omaha World-Herald afterward, that he was pleased with the governor’s response, because it’s a “Step in the right direction.”

Branstad and Reynolds are scheduled to tour western Iowa through Thursday, with “Jobs for Iowa” public meetings scheduled for today in Rock Rapids, Sibley and Primghar; and tomorrow (Thursday) in Cherokee, Storm Lake, Pocahontas and Rockwell City.

A Red Oak woman was arrested this (Wednesday) morning on a warrant for probation revocation. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department says 49-year old Kelly L. Beaver was taken into custody without incident a little after 2-a.m., at her residence in Red Oak.

Beaver was brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where she was being held on $5,000 bond.

Monday morning’s storm that dumped 4 to 7 inches of rain across western Iowa is causing more trouble for residents of Council Bluffs. Public Information Officer Don Gross says several homes are not livable right now due to collapsed basements. “As of today (Tuesday) , seven homes have had basement collapses that have been severe enough that they have had to evacuate their homes,” Gross said. All of the affected homes are on the west side of Council Bluffs, which was hit the hardest by the flash flooding. The city is also dealing with a collapsed sanitary sewer, which could take up to two weeks to repair. There is some good news – most of the streets that were closed by the flooding are back open.

“There are a few spots that still have a little bit of water on them, but most of the water has receded,” Gross said. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin toured the flood stricken area of Council Bluffs Tuesday. The Council Bluffs recycling center is accepting tree debris free of charge to city residents until further notice.

(Radio Iowa)