The Page & Fremont County Sheriffs are reminding the residents of their counties to use extra caution when travelling, entering, or exiting on Highways 2, 71, and 59 in those Counties due to the extra traffic on the roadways associated with the Interstate 29 detour.  The official detour, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation, does not include Highway 59, but there has been a substantial traffic increase on all of the mentioned highways.  

If you generally walk, jog, or bicycle ride on those roads,  authorities are advising that other, less travelled roads, be utilized during the detour period.  It is unknown how long this detour will be, as it could change with entrance / exit points of I-29 from the flooding.

PERU, Neb. (AP) – Another American Red Cross shelter has been set up for Nebraska and Iowa victims of Missouri River flooding. The Red Cross says the new one is in southeast Nebraska, at Peru State College in Peru, NE.

Another 24-hour Nebraska shelter is at Fort Calhoun High School at Fort Calhoun, north of Omaha. Two 24-hour shelters have been set up in Iowa: at Missouri Valley High School in Missouri Valley and at Sidney High School in Sidney.

Other shelters are on standby in Cass, Cedar, Dixon, Douglas, Sarpy and Thurston counties in Nebraska, Pottawattamie County in Iowa.

Two people were shot early this (Friday) morning in Pottawattamie County. Sheriff Jeff Danker says the incident happened in a residence located about 8-miles west of Oakland. The sheriff says the suspect, 50-year old Craig Finney, entered the home of Patricia Harker at around 2:20-a.m. The two apparently had some type of previous relationship.

Danker says Harker, and another individual, a male, were in the home at the time. Finney allegedly shot Harker, and fired at the other man, who was in the bathroom. The bullet went through the bathroom door, but the unidentified male was not injured. Finney then turned the gun on himself and fired.

He suffered what Danker believes was a non-life threatening injury. Harker however, was critically injured and taken to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs.

Danker says Finney left the scene in either a silver 2005 Mercury Mountaineer, license plate 784-CJL, or a beige 1996 Ford F150 pickup truck, license plate 937-YJB. Danker said Finney is described as being a 5-foot 9-inch tall, 250-pound white male. He may be traveling with his 25-year old son Cody.

Iowa court records indicate that a restraining order had been issued in July 2004 against Finney at the request of Patricia L. Harker, who owns the home where the shooting occurred. The order was rescinded four months later, and Finney received a deferred judgment on domestic abuse-aggravated assault charges in December 2004.

Finney may be armed. His whereabouts are currently unknown. If you see him, call 9-1-1 and do not attempt to approach the man.

GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says federal budget problems make extra aid to flooded-out Iowa and Nebraska farmers unlikely. At a meeting with farmers and others Thursday in Glenwood, Iowa, Vilsack says proposed budget cuts for his department make chances slim that more money would be given to disaster or insurance programs. Vilsack is scheduled to hold a similar meeting in South Sioux City, Neb., today (Friday).

The Iowa Farm Bureau estimates that up to 150,000 acres of cropland will be flooded and crops drowned by floodwater from the Missouri River.

The Iowa State Patrol reports no one was injured during a two-vehicle collision Thursday, in Page County. The accident happened at Noon, in Clarinda.

Officials say a vehicle driven by 30-year old Joseph Sitzman, of Osceola, was making a left turn into the Casey’s General Store entrance off of northbound South 16^th Street, when 49-year old Rhonda Key, of Clarinda, failed to yield the right of way, and ran into Sitzman’s vehicle.

Both drivers were wearing their seatbelts. Damage from the collision amounted to $4,000. The trooper cited Key for Failure to Yield upon entering a through highway.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Truckers and trucking companies are paying a price for the flood-related closures along  Interstate 29, in Iowa.  The president of the Iowa Motor Truck Association told The Des Moines Register that I-29 is a major corridor for trucks. Association president Brenda Neville says there is a tremendous cost to take the highway detours, “and while some of the costs can be passed on to the shipper, that doesn’t always happen.”

Flooding on the Missouri River has closed a 20-mile stretch between Council Bluffs and the Missouri Valley area and a 22-mile section from Iowa Highway 2 south to U.S. Highway 136 at Rock Port, Mo.

Two stretches of Interstate 680 in Pottawattamie County are also closed, including the Mormon Bridge over the Missouri River into Nebraska.