(final update at 6:15-p.m.)

Only minor injuries were reported following a motor coach rollover accident this (Monday) morning, in Pottawattamie County. The accident happened at around 7:45-a.m. on Interstate 80, about a  mile east of the Minden exit.  The Iowa State Patrol says a bus registered to Global Transportation, L.L.C in Commerce City, CO and driven by 61-year old Bradley Moe, of Rock Valley, Iowa, was traveling  eastbound on the interstate when the right front tire blew out.

When Moe lost control of the bus, the vehicle, carrying 39 high school-aged passengers, flipped onto the driver’s side and slid down an embankment into the south ditch, and came to rest on its side in a field.  All of the passengers, who are members of “The Troopers” – a competitive junior drum and bugle corps based in Casper, Wyoming, and en-route to a competition in Indiana, were transported to four hospitals in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area.  Each was treated for minor injuries, such as minor bruises and cuts, which required stitches. All have since been released from the hospital.

The bus driver suffered the most serious injuries. He was flown by medical helicopter to Creighton University Medical Center, where he also received treatment and was later released.

Most of traveling musical team was asleep when the accident occurred. After being tossed about as the bus tumbled onto its side, they managed to escape through emergency hatches built into the bus’ roof.  The first emergency crews on the scene reported there were anywhere from 28-to 33 “walking wounded.”

Crews from no fewer than seven area fire and rescue departments along with various ambulance services responded to the crash, which caused eastbound I-80 to be shut down for a little more than two-hours. Other buses carrying corps members continued on to the group’s destination for the night, Greenfield, Iowa.  The Troopers is comprised of performers from across the nation, Canada and Europe, although most members come from the western U.S.

ROCK PORT, Mo. (AP) – A second partial breach has been reported on a Missouri River levee in northwest Missouri.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported the first breach on the levee near the Missouri-Iowa border on Sunday. The second breach, which is about 10 feet wide, was reported Monday.

The corps said the Iowa National Guard has been dropping thousands of pounds of large sandbags to help fill the breaches, but the damaged areas are expected to fully breach as water levels rise.

Officials in Iowa and Missouri began evacuations Sunday from Hamburg, Iowa, and from several homes on the Missouri side of the levee because of the breaches. The corps has predicted record river flows and large releases from several upstream reservoirs because of steady spring rain and runoff from record snowpack.

An investigation into suspicious activity in a farm field in rural Red Oak, early Sunday morning, led to the arrest of a teenager. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 17-year old Dalton P. Valentin, of Red Oak, was arrested just before 2-a.m., on a charge of Minor in Possession of Alcohol.

Valentin was taken into custody in the field located at the end of 137^th Street in rural Red Oak, processed at the jail, and released to the custody of his mother.

Iowa’s only nuclear power plant is in Palo, near Cedar Rapids, but another one is located just across the now-flooding Missouri River in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. Mike Jones is spokesman for the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant and says they’re ready for any threat from the rising waterway.

We are trying to be prepared in case there is any flooding down the road here,” Jones says. “We have sandbagged some areas. We have filled a number of sandbags in case they are needed in other areas.” Jones says they’re taking a number of steps to protect potential danger zones.

“We’ve moved some equipment,” Jones says. “We’ve looked to make sure our flood gates are ready in case we need them. We are trying to be pro-active and be in a state of readiness.” In light of all that happened in Japan a few months ago when a power plant was washed over by a tsunami, Jones says people in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa don’t have to worry about any type of nuclear disaster here. He notes, the plant isn’t even running at the moment.

Jones says, “The plant is in a refueling outage so it is not operating but we want to be prepared should we be completed by the time the river goes back down to make sure we’re able to operate.” He says they’re keeping a careful watch on the Missouri River, which may continue rising into mid-June.

Jones says, “The best thing that we can do right now is what everyone else is doing and that is to keep a very close eye on the river and if it starts to rise, to make sure we are taking the appropriate steps.” The Fort Calhoun plant is reportedly designed to handle 14-to-15 additional feet of water from the current stage.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Charlie Wisecup began to collect antique farm equipment in 1981. Twenty years and more than 100 machines later, he opened up Wisecup’s Farm Museum in 2001.

“This started because of my love of farming,” said Wisecup, 75. “It was my hobby. Once I started collecting, you get two or three items, and then you want to have four. Then you start thinking you ought to preserve the past.

“I want to have it here for future generations.”

Wisecup’s Farm Museum, 1200 Canal St. off of U.S. Highway 30 in Missouri Valley, features more than 100 tractors and farm implements, ranging in model years from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Two barns house memorabilia from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

During a tour of the museum, president and former curator Russ Zack explained each and every item, leaving out no details.

“This here is an old steel wheel tractor from the 1920s. Double fuel, it ran on kerosene and gasoline. About 17 horsepower,” he said. “About the same as a lawnmower. And the tractor moves just as fast.”

Zack, 30, starts many sentences with “This here is” or “Oh, I should tell you about this.” His passion for the museum shines through, a product of his upbringing on a Woodbine farm.

“I never fit into the city crowd. I grew up with this. It’s familiar to me,” he said, adding about the importance of the museum: “I want to help preserve the past. People have to be reminded every once in a while where we come from.”

The north barn at the museum features “rooms” with antique household items, including a dining room, kitchen, parlor, bedroom and more. The museum holds a few country music events in the barn each year.

“This is a barn, so you’ll see frogs and spiders and bugs and birds,” Zack said as the tour began. “I kick them out at night.”

The south barn features old-time shops, including a doctor’s office, surveyor’s office and mercantile store. A replica one-room schoolhouse is nearby. New items include a refurbished U-diesel Minneapolis-Moline from the 1950s and a native prairie enclosure. A replica church is under construction.

A 1962 Minneapolis-Moline tractor outside runs on propane. Zack starts the machine up, turning the tank knob to get the propane flowing.

“Whew, stinky,” he said.

Zack estimated that about 80 percent of the tractors at the museum still run.

Wisecup grew up on the museum grounds. He farmed with his father, Art, and eventually took over. They used Minneapolis-Moline machinery, Wisecup said.

In 1981, his aunt gave him a 1947 Minneapolis-Moline “Z” tractor, which started his collection of antique farm equipment, though he began collecting in earnest in 1991.

Friend Bob Hansen, a Crescent farmer, helped teach him how to restore the old tractors, while another friend, Ray Wright of Missouri Valley, helped him paint.

“It turned into a neighborhood thing,” Wisecup said. “In the winter time, guys would show up at the shop and help me work on my tractors.”

The museum grew out of his collection.

“The location makes it nice,” Wisecup said of his Highway 30 digs. “The museum kind of turned into what it is by itself.”

The farmland is now tilled by Wisecup’s son, Lee, with the museum providing an eclectic fa�ade. Much of what’s displayed was donated to Wisecup over the years.

“A lot of the stuff I had out there, a lot of people gave it to me because they didn’t want their family to take it to the junkyard or the iron man,” he said. “They’d rather see it preserved.”

Wisecup told the story of a corn sheller that showed up at the museum one day. He said it took about three months to figure out who had donated the machine.

“Anytime you show up there’s a possibility something new will be there,” Wisecup said.

A spokesman for Iowa’s governor calls the Missouri River flooding “an increasingly serious situation.” And the National Weather Service warns Interstate 29 would be flooded if a weakened levee in far southwest Iowa fails

Officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for about half of the town of Hamburg, Iowa, on Sunday — forcing about 600 residents to leave because of problems with a levee south of town. Derek Hill, head of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management division, described the breach as a “boil” — a hole of less than an inch-and-a-half in diameter. It created a small geyser of water that began spraying onto the dry side of the levee. This geyser or boil was found about two miles south of the Iowa/Missouri border, but Hill says the water would flow back into Hamburg if the levee fails. “Because of the topography there — it’s fairly flat land; there’s not a lot of elevation change — and the hydrologists explained that’s more than likely the direction the water would flow,” Hill says. A Black Hawk helicopter was dispatched Sunday to the levee, which is about five miles southwest of Hamburg. One-thousand pound sandbags were dropped from the helicopter in hopes of plugging the hole. Hill briefed reporters by phone on Sunday afternoon.

“You use a helicopter rather than putting personnel on the level because of the danger of a…larger levee breach at that time,” Hill says. Hill has seen maps which indicate the Missouri may flood as far as two miles into Iowa at some locations.

“So the Missouri River, at a few points, is going to be extremely broad,” Hill said. Hill is urging Iowans to move all their belongings to higher ground if they’re within the predicted flood zone. The water will stay for weeks, in some cases months, and Hill says not only will mold begin to grow on the structure of a home, but even items which are above the water line in a home will begin to get moldy as well.

“This water is coming,” Hill said. “…The people that live within the inundation area need to be talking to their county officials as to how deep the water is going to be. Is there a way to mitigate against that water or do they need to be moving?” According to Hill, there are about 30-thousand Iowans who live in rural areas — outside of cities or towns — in the six Iowa counties that are in the flood zone.

“If they have vehicles or farm equipment that are out there, or anhydrous tanks, they need to be moving them to higher ground so they’re not floating down river,” Hill said. Propane tanks also need to be tethered down or moved out of the flood zone.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa; 4:54-p.m.)