Sibley, Iowa — One of the towns experiencing major flooding in northwest Iowa is Sibley. In fact, Sibley Fire Chief Ken Huls says it may be the worst flooding that he’s ever seen in the Osceola County community.
He tells us the situation in Sibley.
He says the evacuations were limited to one area of Sibley.
He says it started when the City of Sibley called him on Wednesday night.
City officials say that not only do floor drains dump into the sanitary sewer, but unfortunately, some people also have hooked their sump pumps into the sanitary sewer system or have them pump to a drain. They ask people not to do that as the sewer systems get overwhelmed. You are asked to pump the water in your basement onto your lawn, into your alley, or even into the street to the storm sewer.
Huls says the most important advice he can give is to not drive over flooded roads. He says not only do you not know how deep the water is, you don’t know if the road is okay underneath. He reminds people that it only takes a little moving water to float a car, and if that happens you’ll have no control whatsoever and your car may be taken downstream into deep water very quickly. We at KIWA have heard reports of people needing to be rescued from their vehicle during this flooding event and we echo Huls’ advice.
