Flash flooding stikes southeast Iowa two weeks in a row
OTTUMWA, IOWA -- For the second consecutive Friday, major thunderstorms pounded the City of Bridges.
And the rain once again left Ottumwa resident battling street flooding.
Thunderstorms began moving through the city after 3:00 pm, overloading gutters and stranding motorists.
Ottumwa police responded to multiple calls of cars caught in rising waters, including a car surrounded by water up to its doors.
On 2nd St. in downtown Ottumwa, the water quickly rose as high as two feet.
Amid a flurry of flooding phone calls, City Administrator Joe Helfenberger described what he saw out his window in Central Park this afternoon.
“It really came down hard and we had a tremendous amount of water. I saw more water in Central Park. It look like a giant river, a sheet of water just coming across. I have never seen it this bad in 2 or 3 years.”
He said he received a report of some basements backing up. He noted the city has had the sewer pumps running since 3:30 this afternoon.
By 4:30 the storms had started to die down but not before dropping over 4 inches of rain on some areas of the city. At the Ottumwa airport, 2.98 inches of rain fell in just 35 minutes.
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