Clean-up continues in north-central Iowa after heavy rain on Friday and Saturday caused flooding and straight-line winds ad hail caused property and crop damage across Cerro Gordo and Floyd Counties Saturday afternoon. Mason City Mayor Bill Schickel. “We estimate that probably better than 50 percent of the 28,000 residents in Mason City experienced some type of water damage, mostly basement flooding, so there’s been a lot of people impacted by this,” Schickel says, “some very severely and then some much more of a minor situation.”

The mayor says there were evacuations on Saturday night. “We had a number of residents impacted by the flood along the Winnebago River and other parts of Mason City,” Schickel says. “We notified 90 residents for a voluntary evacuation. Our police, fire and emergency management personnel went door-to-door in Mason City in the neighborhoods along the Willow Creek.”

One resident sought shelter at the Salvation Army. Sandbags for homes and businesses are available at the city’s maintenance headquarters. As Mason City residents started the clean-up Sunday, they’ve been placing damaged items on the curb, including large things like freezers and sofas, but Schickel says garbage crews won’t be hauling those things away until the city is out of its state of emergency.  “Hopefully if we get out of the woods later on Monday or Tuesday, we can start looking at those clean-up kinds of things,” Schickel says.

Mason City’s water treatment plant and drinking water supply is safe and secure, according to city officials. Flood clean-up kits are available at the Mason City Fire Department. Cerro Gordo County Emergency Management director Steve O’Neil says any material that was touched by flood water should be removed. “Carpets, furniture — clean that outside. If you can’t clean it, please dispose of it. Otherwise rinse everything down (with) a bleach mixture and the instructions are with that are very important. There are some health risks as far as mold and if there happens to be sewage, there’s some other situations too.”

For example, water heaters and furnaces impacted by flooding should be inspected before put in back in use. A number of roads outside of Mason City have been damaged by flooding. Mason City’s police chief asked residents to stay off the roads if more than an inch of rain falls in the next 24 hours, as street flooding would likely throughout the city. The city’s operations manager is asking residents to reduce water use, as Mason City’s sanitary sewer plant has been running at capacity and suffered some minor damage from this weekend’s storms.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department is expected to release details about a chase that wound its way through Atlantic late Sunday night. According to reports, the vehicle was pursued on Highway 6 through Atlantic, Wiota, Anita and onto eastbound Interstate 80 before the suspect was taken into custody about a mile east of the Casey exit. During the chase, speeds reached up to 100-miles per hour.

KJAN News spoke briefly with Deputy Tim Olsen at around 10:45-p.m. outside the Cass County Jail. He said they had just arrived at the facility and were still processing the information. No other details were immediately available.

WATERLOO, Iowa – Heavy rains from this weekend have caused flooding of the Cedar River; therefore, George Wyth State Park will be closing Sunday (Today) at 6:00 pm. The Cedar River is expected to crest on Wednesday and the main roads in the park are expected to be covered by water. Trails and other areas of the park may also be impacted by the flooding within the park. Park officials hope to have the area back up open for public use by next weekend.

Before you head out to any of the state parks, be sure to check for closures by visiting: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Alerts-and-Closures.

Heavy rain and downed trees limbs caused power outages in Atlantic Sunday afternoon. The Cass County Communications Center has received numerous calls about power outages. Loud zaps could be heard in the area of 6th and Mulberry Streets where a tree limb was coming into contact with the power lines. Power surges were observed at 3rd and Mulberry. All stop lights are out east of 7th and Olive Streets. Fire alarms were also going off at IWCC, probably as the result of the power surges.

AMU has been notified.

PHOENIX (AP) — More than two months after an Arizona man was arrested on a fugitive warrant stemming from his escape from an Iowa prison 37 years ago, officials there have yet to decide whether to extradite or release him. For over a decade, Charles Cagley thought he was no longer a wanted man based on a private investigator’s research in 2005 and on an Iowa prison warden’s letter to Veterans Affairs a year later, his wife Virginia Cagley said.

All that came unglued March 27 when police, notified by the FBI that Iowa had a newly outstanding warrant for him, showed up at the couple’s home in Prescott Valley, 82 miles north of Phoenix. The Cagleys had lived in the area since 2004.

Since Charles Cagley’s arrest, Iowa authorities have been trying to decide where things stand legally and what they will do next. Meanwhile, he’s been locked up at the Yavapai County Jail in Camp Verde, 23 miles from the couple’s home. “He does a lot of reading. He’s read a lot of books and he constructed a backgammon game out of cardboard and sugar containers,” Virginia Cagley told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Thursday. “He and his cellmates play.”

The wife, who frequently speaks to her jailed husband by phone, said his frame of mind is “up and down, nervous and not nervous.” Iowa Department of Corrections spokesman Cord Overton said Friday the department has been working with an assistant attorney general and Gov. Kim Reynolds’ staff “to take the proper legal course of action in regards to this case.”

Overton said Iowa officials believe that a 90-day limit on his detention in Arizona expires June 26. Finding paper records from decades ago is one reason resolution of the case has been difficult, Overton said. Overton previously told the AP that the 2018 warrant that resulted in Charles Cagley’s March arrest was issued after state officials reviewed old records and found that the escape case appeared unresolved.

Charles Cagley entered prison in 1978 to serve a 10-year sentence, less time for good behavior, on a robbery conviction in Woodbury County. Virginia Cagley previously said her husband fled because he was threatened by other inmates who wanted him to smuggle marijuana into the prison and because somebody tried to break into her trailer. “We were in fear for our lives so we ran,” she said.

The private investigator the couple hired in 2005 to research the Iowa case was told “everything had been dropped,” Virginia Cagley said. In 2006, after Charles Cagley applied for VA benefits, the Iowa warden wrote the VA and said the 1991 warrant was withdrawn, she added.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Some Dubuque parents are concerned about the end of an elementary school’s charter status, despite officials saying many of the school’s practices will remain in place. The Dubuque Community School Board voted in January not to renew Prescott Elementary School’s status as a charter school, The Telegraph Herald reported. Officials said they believed the school didn’t see significant improvement in student achievement during its 12 years as a charter.

The school will keep its expeditionary-learning instructional design, with an integration of the arts, and continue having students spend two years with the same teacher, Principal Vicki Sullivan said. She said officials believe they’ve found ways to keep the school’s identity.

“I do not think that the children will be experiencing a large difference,” Sullivan said.
The school will see some changes, such as transitioning to regular enrollment boundaries next school year instead of being open to all students, Sullivan said. Students who were enrolled this school year will be allowed to continue attending classes, district officials said.

About 15 students have decided to leave Prescott and attend their home schools, Sullivan said. The school has about 260 students. Parent Liz Wiskus said she’s decided to transfer her daughter, Hailey, to Carver Elementary School in the fall for fifth grade.
“Too much was in limbo,” Wiskus said. Naomi Clark’s daughter, Liberty, will start the fourth grade in the fall. Clark said she plans to open-enroll Liberty at Prescott, despite concerns about how the school may change.

“They have friends here,” Clark said. “They know the teacher, they know the school and hopefully, many of the charter elements will be kept.”