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Private well owners advised to have them checked after recent series of storms

People with private drinking wells in flooded areas are being urged by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to use caution before using water from those sources.

Extensive rainfall and the resulting flooding over portions of north central and northeast Iowa have also caused a number of wastewater treatment facilities to overflow. Some of the facilities have had to bypass untreated wastewater to prevent back-ups into homes and businesses. In all, 38 different wastewater facilities had reported excess water-related issues by Thursday afternoon of last week.

by Joe Moses

The Prairie Steamers Car Club made an appearance in Allamakee County during the group's steam car cruise that was held Monday, September 12 through Friday, September 16. A total of 18 steam cars were involved in this event that traversed through Iowa and Wisconsin throughout last week.

Steam cars are a rare sight, with most companies that produced them going out of business in the late 1920s. Stanley is the most famous of the steam car manufacturers, with Stanley Steamers accounting for most of the vehicles in this year's cruise.

Another quick, heavy dose of approximately an inch of rain on already saturated ground in the very early morning hours of Tuesday, September 13 resulted in a pair of large boulders pictured above breaking loose from the hillside along State Highway 76 just north of Marquette and falling on to the highway, bringing trees and other debris along with them. Crews were at work in those very early morning hours Tuesday cleaning up the rock slide, including having to jackhammer the two large boulders in order to move them off the roadway. Highway 76 was completely closed to traffic during those early morning hours and limited to single lane traffic for a good portion of Tuesday while clean-up and maintenance efforts continued. Photo by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Kee High School seniors Emily Benzing (left) and Tom Martin (right) were crowned Kee High School's 2016 Homecoming Queen and King at the annual Homecoming pep rally held in the Kee High School gymnasium Friday afternoon, September 16. Additional photos of Kee High School's Homecoming festivities are featured on Page 15A of this week's print edition of The Standard, along with coverage of the Hawks' Homecoming game with Tripoli featured on Pages 10A-11A inside this week's issue. Photo courtesy of the Kee High School yearbook.
 

The National Weather Service in La Crosse has extended the Flash Flood Warning for: Northeastern Allamakee County in northeastern Iowa. Southeastern Houston County in Southeastern Minnesota. Northwestern Crawford County in southwestern Wisconsin. Southwestern Vernon County in southwestern Wisconsin until 12:45 PM CDT.

Members of the Kee High School Homecoming Court for 2016 include the King and Queen candidates from this year's senior class pictured above, as well as the underclassman attendants pictured below. Pictured above are, left to right: Front row - Senior Class Homecoming Queen candidates Claudia Mathis, Sydney Strong, Emily Benzing, Samantha Meiners, Allison Colsch. Back row - Senior Class Homecoming King candidates Tom Martin, Casey Carroll, Brock Colsch, Clay Olson, Evan Whalen. Pictured below, front to back and left to right, are: Freshman Class representatives Kristina Dibert and Jamel Harris; Sophomore Class representatives Lacey Mitchell and Aiden Winters; Junior Class representatives Nicole Wood and Noah Spearbecker. Details of this week's Homecoming events at Kee High School, along with celebratory pages, can be found on Pages 8A-9A inside the Wednesday, September 14 edition of The Standard. Photos courtesy of the Kee High School Yearbook.
 

Allamakee County Emergency Management is asking Allamakee County home and business owners who experienced damage from the August 23-24 heavy rains and flooding to contact Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Snitker no later than Friday, September 16 to report flood damage.  This information will then be reported to the State of Iowa for potential further action beyond the Iowa Individual Assistance Program which is currently available. Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Snitker can be reach by phone at 563-568-4233 or by e-mail at csnitker@co.allamakee.ia.us.

Additional information about flood assistance within Allamakee County and northeast Iowa can be found on Page 11A of this week's issue of The Standard.
 

The Nation of Patriots, a volunteer organization with a mission to provide financial support to families of wounded military veterans who have made sacrifices in service to their country, brought its 2016 Patriot Tour through Waukon last week on its way to completion of its annual three-month summer tour across the country. Tour participants display a United States flag which is transferred between riders at each designated stop along the tour. The tour began over the Memorial Day weekend from Madison, WI, making its way through every one of the contiguous 48 United States before finally ending up back in Madison, WI, where it arrived Saturday, September 3.

At approximately 1:09 a.m. Sunday, September 11, the Lansing Fire Department was paged out for a structure fire at 221 Main Street, the former Smerud Construction building still owned by Roxanne Smerud of Lansing. According to a report released by Lansing Fire Department Chief Tony Becker, the fire was contained to the lower level and basement of the Smerud building, but the upstairs apartment and neighboring buildings did sustain heavy smoke and water damage from the incident. Local officials credit the quick and skilled work of the firefighters from the local and area volunteer departments for preventing the blaze from being much worse considering the close proximity of Lansing's Main Street buildings.

by Joe Moses

Late Tuesday, August 23 through early Wednesday, August 24 saw heavy rainfall that impacted much of northeast Iowa. The Upper Iowa River valley in northern Allamakee County suffered flood damage due to the 5.5" to 6" of rain reported by the National Weather Service in that area during that overnight period.

As a result of that rainfall and the flow downstream of more than 8" of rain in the Decorah area, the Upper Iowa River swelled to a record crest of 24.3', nearly two feet higher than it had ever reached before. The Upper Iowa's previous record crest had been 22.5' back in 2008.