Missouri River levees that were damaged by last year’s floodwaters remain vulnerable, with spring a little over two months away. Congress has appropriated money for emergency repairs and more money is promised. Colonel Robert Ruch, Commander of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers’ Omaha District, says they’re focused on repairing the critical sections of levee first.  “Most of those levees held up very well through the flood of 2011,” Colonel Ruch says. “We know where our greatest weaknesses are and that’s where we’re putting our greatest strength.” Floodwaters breeched some levees in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, damaged others, and put great strain on all the levees downstream. Ruch says it will take months to restore the basin’s levee system to where it was in early 2011.

“We probably need a full year to get things completely restored back to pre-flood conditions,” Ruch says. “We have ideas as to what the critical things are that need to be ready for as early as March 1st, when we consider the runoff season to begin and where we could be in some danger of rising waters.” Kim Thomas, chief of the Corps’ “Readiness Branch” in Omaha, acknowledges the Missouri River levee system remains vulnerable.  “Those levees are definitely in critical condition,” Thomas says. “We’ll get them closed up. We’ll get the bridges closed up. We’ll get all the critical repairs done but there’s still a lot to go there. We have a lot of seepage concerns that we have to go through and get geotech investigation on, do analysis, do design.” Thomas says the first order of business is to repair the sections of levee that are most severely damaged.

“Those pieces will be fixed,” she says. “It’s the under-foundation seepage issues that require extensive analysis and that takes time.” Some estimates indicate it could be late this year or even 2013 before repairs to the levee system are complete.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

Atlantic and Marne Firefighters responded to the scene of a fully engulfed semi-tractor on Highway 173, one-mile south of Interstate 80, Monday night. The call came in at 7:23-p.m. The driver of the 2004 Volvo, 67-year old Sam Hoover, of Atlantic told KJAN News he was traveling south on 173 after having just turned off the interstate on his way home to Atlantic, when he noticed flames in the back of the truck. He said he locked the brakes up, got out of the cab and was going to grab his fire extinguisher, but by then the flames had started to consume the cab and the glass started to blow out.  He said there were flames coming from the engine compartment, also.

Volvo semi tractor, engine compartment, right side view 1-16-12

Hoover said he had just spent $4,000 on his rig in December, and was scheduled to have a wheel seals serviced by Volvo on Tuesday afternoon. Hoover owned the truck, which was contracted to Fremont Carriers, out of Fremont,  Nebraska. It’s not clear what exactly caused the blaze, which completely destroyed the tractor portion of the semi (no trailer was attached). The burned out hulk was still smoldering more than an hour after the first fire crews arrived. No injuries were reported.

Burned out Volvo semi tractor/Driver's side view 1-16-12

After many months of planning, the Board of Directors and Staff of the Griswold Cooperative Telephone Company has announced their BROADBAND NETWORK EVOLUTION PROJECT.

The end of December, Griswold Cooperative started the engineering and installation process of an advanced Broadband Network, that will result in what is generally referred to as Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH). This system will provide a platform for enhanced communications and entertainment services long into the future.

GCTC customers receiving telephone service from the Cooperative today, including all rural customers, will have fiber optics connected right to your homes or businesses. The project will replace the existing copper network cabling that is currently used to provide telephone, Internet and cable television service. The BROADBAND NETWORK will bring all services to customers over fiber optic cable, individually to each location. The fiber “pipe” opens nearly endless opportunities for communications and entertainment services because of the sheer volume of space, or bandwidth, which is available to every customer.

The entire project should be completed by 2015, but different portions or areas will be completed incrementally, at different times. As these steps are completed, those customers will be converted to the new fiber optic system and service offerings. For customers in Elliott and Grant, the initial phase of the project, you are seeing the engineering firm, RVW, Inc., in your neighborhoods and talking with each of you about the design parameters for each individual location GCTC is serving.

GCTC says they believe it is their responsibility to have the technology in place to meet the needs of customers now, and in the future.

The new fiber BROADBAND NETWORK will be capable of increased bandwidth per customer and will allow for higher quality TV channels, and the continued expansion of Internet speeds, data services and applications. The project covers the entire Cooperative service area with FTTH installations. Rural customers will be able to get TV services, which before have only been available to city residents.