COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — Some Council Bluffs streets were a mess after Monday morning's rain storm. And again Tuesday, residents on the West side of town were dealing with more flooding.
"Last year the water didn't exceed this far, it is way up there this year,” said Council Bluffs resident, Robert Walker. He has lived in this Council Bluffs neighborhood for eight years. This is now the third time the area has flooded since he's lived here.
Walker lives in the apartments across the street from a house he says always gets water in it. “Their house flooded, and they were pumping water yesterday out of their basement and look at it now, it's flooded again,” he said.
And residents across this neighborhood were seeing similar flooding. As the rushing water became almost hip deep, some people decided to seek higher ground. “They should have pumps or something to get this water done,” said Walker.
He adds, he wishes the city would do more to make sure this doesn't keep happening. “The city needs to look into that it just doesn't make any sense, every year this is happening, and nothing has been done,” said Walker.
Pat Miller is the Operations Director for the Council Bluffs Public Works Department. He says at this point crews are doing all they can when the roads flood.
Adding, the flooded streets have been, and will continue to be a problem due to the high Missouri River levels and an over saturated ground. The river is almost 29 feet and has been high since last year. The ground has been saturated since March.
Adding, the flooded streets have been, and will continue to be a problem due to the high Missouri River levels and an over saturated ground. The river is almost 29 feet and has been high since last year. The ground has been saturated since March.
When crews pump water out of roads, it needs to go somewhere and right now there isn’t much of a place for it to go; and the extra rainfall that fell Tuesday morning just overrides the pump system. So crews can really only set up barricades and direct traffic at this point.
When crews pump water out of roads, it needs to go somewhere and right now there isn’t much of a place for it to go; and the extra rainfall that fell Tuesday morning just overrides the pump system. So crews can really only set up barricades and direct traffic at this point.
