The Rock Valley Flood: 1 year later

Yahoo

19 hours ago

ROCK VALLEY, Iowa (KELO) — It has been about one year since floodwaters ravaged through homes, businesses and the K-12 school in Rock Valley, Iowa.
The clean-up began immediately, with residents in Rock Valley and surrounding communities rallying together.
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There's still work that needs to be done, but Rock Valley is well on the path to recovery.
In Rock Valley, you can still see homes with mangled garage doors, washed-out basements and faded red tags. It's a stark reminder of the floodwaters that devastated the town.
'I don't want to ever go through that again,' Rock Valley Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo said.
'June of last year was one of those kinds of unfathomable events,' Rock Valley Valley Community School District superintendent Matt Van Voorst said.
After the flooding, the K-12 school's high school gym was badly damaged, floors were caked with mud and piles of items were tossed outside.
'How do you plan for something like that? You don't,' Van Voorst said.
The flood also left businesses and homeowners with overwhelming messes to clean up. Just a couple of the structures hit hard were First Impressions, owned by Deb Kempema, on the west side of town and Dawn DeWit's home further north.
'We had no inventory. This place ended up to be two-by-fours with no sheetrock, no samples, no swatches, no furniture, no accessories. It was pretty much all destroyed,' Kempema said.
'Our home had like three feet of water on the main floor,' DeWit said.
Now, almost one year removed from the flooding, rain still puts some residents on edge.
'It scares you. It really does, and you, you think, 'Okay, where are my kids? Are they all okay? What's the basement here? Do we have any water? Check the sump pump.' It's kind of crazy that you don't have to think about that stuff, but you do because it's too fresh,' DeWit said.
However, the town is showing signs of recovery.
'The quote I wrote down was, 'You can't make a comeback if you don't get started,'' Van Voorst said.
The school's gym was repaired in time for basketball season. One of the last big projects related to flooding cleanup is waxing the floors, which is taking place this summer.
'It is remarkable to see where we're at today, but essentially, we have new flooring, cabinets, new classroom spaces,' Van Voorst said.
Kempema has also gotten back on track.
'We've accomplished so much in less than a year, and a lot of people did. It's normal. It's a new normal, but it's normal,' Kempema said.
Unfortunately for DeWit, her home could not be saved.
'We had lived there for 27 years, so that was home. That's where we raised our babies, but the structure was just too compromised. The location was just not a good place to be, so we needed to relocate,' DeWit said.
Van Otterloo estimates that around 150 homes are unsalvageable and qualify for the FEMA buyout program.
'FEMA actually gives the money to the state. The state and the city have to work with them. The city actually purchases the homes. Then, that land can never be sold again. It has to be open space, grass or something similar to that. We can't put anything back on it,' Van Otterloo said.
Thankfully, some people, like DeWit, have rebuilt homes.
'It's beautiful. It's more than we ever could imagine. We're very fortunate,' DeWit said.
Others still live in trailers provided by FEMA.
'Some will be permanent that way because their homes are destroyed, but they've all got their own space that they're staying in now, so that's comforting to them,' Van Otterloo said.
There are also new developments going up in Rock Valley. There's Valley Vue and Valley Villa, both on the east side of town.
'This is one of the things we asked the governor for when she was here the first time, and she said she'd get it done, and she got it done,' Van Otterloo said.
Rock Valley is still recovering, but the progress residents have made would not have been possible without volunteers.
'It meant so much. I wish I could go back and recall everyone who did come and help,' DeWit said.
'What I saw was exactly what I expected. Everybody came. You didn't have to call for volunteers. They came. They brought their big equipment. We call it the Farmer Army. I mean, they showed up with whatever they had, and they didn't bat an eye,' Van Otterloo said.
It was all to help a resilient community get back on its feet and inspire residents to keep moving forward.
'We just need to keep going, keep pushing, and we're doing that,' Van Otterloo said.
Jordan: How thankful are you to have kind of overcome this?
Deb Kempema: Oh, wow. I think about it every hour. I'm very thankful.
Rock Valley also had to delay the beginning of the school year. To start the year, kindergarten through second graders were using a local church, and middle school students utilized temporary buildings provided by the state.
However, everyone was back under one roof by the spring.
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