The power went out in most of Estherville on Saturday and City Administrator Penny Clayton says a temporary fix to get electricity flowing again is now permanent.
“We worked with Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative to install an emergency tie in…so that we could backfeed power into our system from theirs,” Clayton says. “That will stay in place and will be available when we need an emergency tie in with them or they need one with us.”
The Iowa Lakes Electric Coop has 13,000 customers, while the Electric Department for the City of Estherville serves 3200 accounts. Saturday’s power outage in Estherville was unrelated to flooding in northwest Iowa.
Estherville’s city administrator says officials are evaluating how city-owned infrastructure withstood the floodwaters. “As we transition from the response phase into the recovery phase, we’re looking at any and all things that we can do to protect city infrastructure,” she says, “so that in the event that we have these type of floodwaters again, we can respond better or just have more safeguards in place.”
A long period of heavy rainfall pushed the crest of the West Fork of the Des Moines River in Estherville past 18 feet on Sunday, June 23. That’s well over flood stage. Clayton says although the river level is falling, the city will keep its flood protection measures in place. “If we were to receive torrential amounts of rain, the river could come up fairly quickly again,” Clayton says, “so we’re keeping it in place until we feel we’re out of the woods.”
On Monday, “disaster survivor assistance teams” from FEMA began going door to door in Estherville to ensure flood victims are registered with the agency.
(By Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville)