South Skunk 
set to flood over banks

Bob Rhone has been through this before. With the South Skunk River anticipated to hit flood stage in the next 24 hours, the Colfax public works director has everything set up to play with the river.

“If we get the rain they are forecasting on Friday, then it dries out next week, we should be in good shape,” Rhone said. The flooding in 2008 put Colfax in better shape to handle the rising waters of the South Skunk.

“We had our shakedown cruise in 2008,” Rhone said. The river crested at 20.25 feet on June 14 of that year. That was the second highest flood level recorded for the South Skunk at Colfax, with the historical high crest of 21.53 feet recorded on July 12, 1993. Since the flood of 2008, Colfax has added four big pumps for handling the flooding, so big, Rhone says, the city could fight fires with them. Plus, the city has 70,000 sandbags on hand at all times, more than they used in 2008.

Other changes have been made to mitigate flooding as well, including adding more wetlands areas for flood waters to the west and north of Colfax, and flood relief measures near Bondurant. Rhone said there are a lot of variables that will determine how much flooding occurs, but did not anticipate too much trouble.

“At 17 feet, we’re concerned, and at 19 feet we’ll be sweating a little bit,” he said, but felt the pumps should do their job.

According to the National Weather Service’s Hydrologic Prediction Service Web site, the South Skunk at Colfax is expected to hit flood stage near midnight tonight, and to crest at 19.05 feet at noon on Sunday.