(COUNCIL BLUFFS) — Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Coordinator Doug Reed, late Friday night, reported  The Regional Water Rural Water Association had announced on their website, that affected customers would “very likely lose all water service entirely within the next few hours.”

Reed said also, the Shelby, Pottawattamie, and Harrison County Emergency Management Agencies have implemented emergency drinking water distribution plans for those who do lose water service and are unable to obtain drinking water. HyVee has donated over 100,000 bottles of water to the region that will be shipped in this evening.

Those customers impacted have Regional Water Customer Account Codes that begin with the following letters: A, C, CO, W, T, K, or P. Pottawattamie County residents with those customer account codes who have no access to drinking water should go to https://pcema-ia.org to register their need. The registry will ask for your contact information, address, customer code prefix identified above, and how many people are in your household. This information will help officials validate needs and estimate water quantities.

Impacted residents in Shelby or Harrison counties can contact their County Emergency Management Agency or monitor local media outlets for information on how to obtain drinking water in their area.

A boil order advisory remains in effect until further notice for impacted customers.

GREENFIELD, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) today (Friday), said an autopsy was conducted on a body found July 1st in rural, southeastern Adair County. The cause and manner of death for the adult male found near the intersection of 320th and York Streets are pending further investigation by the Office of the State Medical Examiner. Additionally, the identity of the man is pending further investigation by the Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory and notification of family members.

The Division of Criminal Investigation and the Adair County Sheriff’s Office continue the investigation into this suspicious death. Anyone with information as to the identity of the man or circumstances surrounding his death are asked to call Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater at 712-743-2148.

Additional information will be released when it is available.

(CORRECTION/Updated 5:15-p.m.) The Iowa State Patrol reports two people are dead and another was injured during a crash Friday morning, north of Massena. The crash happened at around 10:26-a.m. on Highway 148/750th Street. Authorities say a 2013 Fiat 500 driven by 69-year-old Juliana Krauth, of Massena, and a 2012 VW Jetta, driven by a minor under the age of 18 from Massena, were both northbound on Highway 148 just south of Oxford Road,  when for reasons unknown, the VW struck the Fiat in the rear, causing the Fiat to leave the road to the right. It rolled over and came to rest on the driver’s side within a creek.

The VW went off the road to the left and through a ditch before coming to rest on a fence. The driver – who was not wearing a seat belt – was transported to the Cass County Hospital by Cumberland Rescue, for treatment of minor injuries. Juliana Kauth and her passenger, 74-year-old David Krauth, also of Massena, died at the scene. Both were wearing their seat belts.

The accident remains under investigation.

(COUNCIL BLUFFS) — Regional Water Rural Water Association has implemented a BOIL WATER order for some regional water customers in northeast Pottawattamie County. Affected customers are also urged to conserve water at this time. A fire at Regional Water’s facility north of Avoca has disable their capability to pump water to some of their towers that supply areas of Pottawattamie, Shelby, and Harrison Counties.

Due to the loss of pumping capability there is a potential for interruption of service later this afternoon or this evening until pumping operations can be reestablished, according to estimates provided by Regional Water staff. The situation has also forced the issuance of a boil order for water used in consumption and food preparation. Doug Reed, Emergency Management Director for Pottawattamie County, said “Emergency Management officials in Shelby and Pottawattamie Counties are working closely together and communicating regularly with Regional Water in order to continually assess the situation and assist in providing public information or other assistance as may be needed.

Pott. County EMA

“Obviously the potential loss of water service to residents in this region is a concern; that concern is just amplified with the current drought conditions, forecast temperatures over the next 48 hours, and this being one of the largest holiday weekends of the year. We’ll monitor the situation closely and both county emergency management agencies are postured to provide whatever assistance may be required until pumping capability is restored.”

Impacted Regional Water customers can get more information by visiting Regional Water’s website and Facebook page. Residents of Pottawattamie County are also encouraged to register for Alert Iowa at https://pcema-ia.org in order to receive emergency notification for situations like this. The system has already been used for this event to notify over 500 area residents and businesses in the county of the potential impact.

Officials with the Regional Water Rural Water Association in Avoca report “Due to a fire at our main booster station, all customers with accounts beginning with A, C, CO, P, T, W, and K, as well as residents of Panama, Portsmouth, Earling, Minden to the extent those cities are using Regional Water, are on a BOIL WATER ADVISORY.

Regional Water customers West of Highway 59 and East of Neola, and some customers East of Highway 59 around Harlan and Kirkman, will soon be without water until they are able to get other pumping stations.

The Audubon School Board, Wednesday morning, approved their end of fiscal year expenditures, and an Elementary Classroom Project. Superintendent Eric Trager explains…

The Board he says also talked about personnel. As we’ve mentioned, Board member Joni Madsen has resigned to transition into High School English Teacher position within the District.

The appointment is for just a couple of months, until a Special Election in September. The other big news from the meeting concerns the addition of an Art Teacher. An individual was locked-in to the post a couple of weeks ago.

Eric Trager says they had a hard time getting someone for the position due to the state-wide teacher shortage that’s left many districts scrambling to get qualified candidates.

He says they’re curious whether the shortage of candidates is a matter of supply and demand, or what is driving the shortage issue. It’s something that needs to be addressed on a state-wide level going forward. In other business, Trager said a Special Election will be held in the District on Sept. 14^th, with two issues on the ballot. The first is a Revenue Purpose Statement (RPS).

He says “there is zero impact to our tax payers.” The second issue on the ballot is an election to fill a seat on the Board vacated by Joni Madsen. In other business, the Board received an update on the facilities project. Eric Trager said the have gone through and tried to eliminate inefficiencies without eliminating any parts of the project. After an extensive redesign/engineering process, the project will go out for bids in August, with the bid openings on Sept. 16^th.

He says they’re hopeful they’ll have a very competitive bid day and move forward from there.