Kellogg takes the brunt of floods in Jasper County

Trigg Dhondt may not want to help his dad with chores around the house, but the 7-year-old wasted no time hauling sandbags to help his hometown of Kellogg. With soaked Crocs, muddied jeans and a spare Gatorade bottle crammed in a side pocket, he joined several volunteers in stacking the bags onto pallets.

He didn’t know what to make of all the flooding or this reporter’s questions. He answered with shrugs and smiles, and bounced on the tips of his toes until I stopped talking to him long enough so he could go lift some more sandbags. By 2 o’clock, volunteers had gone through 70 tons of sand, with more on the way.

Kellogg took the brunt of the May 21 flooding, though just about every community and unincorporated territory in Jasper County was affected by severe torrential downpours that had begun the night before. And if that wasn’t enough, many of those same towns experienced wind damage later that evening.

According to the National Weather Service, water from the North Skunk River had overflowed onto Iowa Highway 224 early in the morning. The road leads directly to the city of Kellogg. Even when water receded and allowed traffic from U.S. Route 6, it looked as if the highway could be swallowed up any second.

Calvin Dhondt, Trigg’s father and the public works director and fire chief for the City of Kellogg, was called to assist with residents experiencing heavy flooding early in the morning at a housing development north of town on Northfield Drive. Basements were full of water. But by that time the highway was washed out.

“I couldn’t make it all the way to where they were,” he said. “So that’s when I notified Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, telling them I needed all the assistance possible at that time. I notified EMA and we ended up calling in Grinnell Fire because they were the only ones that could get to them from the north.”

From there Calvin assessed the damages and the areas needing the most help. He also checked the lift stations, which help pump out water. Kellogg ended up losing one lift station and then prioritized sandbagging the main lift station. Crews were also able to shut down wells, and volunteers began filling sandbags.

Iowa Department of Transportation delivered high-powered pumps to Kellogg to help the sewer system combat the rising water. The town had suddenly been filled with ponds and lakes. Perhaps the most prominent flood-made lake was in Holmdahl Park, which had been completely flooded over.

Shelter roofs and the tops of jungle gyms peaked over the surface. Grinnell Fire piloted boats to navigate the waters in the park and rescue a tanker that had been floating in the water. Calvin, 35, has lived in Kellogg his whole life, and he said this flood might be the worst he has ever seen in the town.

Denny Stevenson, a county supervisor and longtime Kellogg firefighter, agreed, saying it is “just about the worst flooding” he had ever seen. Another similarly devastating flood, the 65-year-old said, happened in 1966. Back then he recalled a propane business had its tanks taken away by flood waters.

“They were picking those up all over the place for a long time,” Stevenson said. “We’ve had some floods that were close over the years, but I think this is the most. I don’t remember it ever coming up on the highway. It looked like it even came up to the Country Store. It wasn’t very deep but it was there.”

In response to the floods, the community of Kellogg and its neighboring towns have showed up in tow to help. Several had been sweating away for hours filling sand bags. Stevenson said it is a reflection on the Kellogg residents. Whether it is a derecho or a flood or some other disaster, people want to help.

“When the derecho hit, they had everything cleaned up in a couple of days,” Stevenson said. “Everybody and their brother was out with their chainsaws and trucks. Just like here (with the floods). Same response. Now it’s just sandbagging what we can. When there’s a need, they jump in.”

Jamey Robinson, director of Jasper County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), told Newton News that other than Kellogg, the areas hit the hardest by the floods were Baxter and Colfax. Some were just “barely staying afloat,” he said. And he means that quite literally.

“Sully and Lynnville are maintaining but it’s definitely not pretty,” Robinson said.

Originally, Robinson was planning on taking a vacation around the time the storms hit. But then his phone blew up around 6 a.m. with reports of widespread flooding. The emergency operations center was opened to begin coordinating response efforts. He also convinced the county to issue a disaster declaration.

The declaration was enacted that very morning and it noted that numerous secondary roads, highways and thoroughfares had become inundated with water, rendering travel challenging or impossible for many commuters. Extensive saturation of infrastructure in areas also raised concerns about health and safety.

Jasper County even issued a travel advisory. By declaring a disaster so early, the county was authorized to mobilize emergency funds from all available resources, activate mutual aid agreements and seek assistance from the State of Iowa. EMA is now asking residents to fill out property damage reports.

Forms can be filled out by visiting Jasper County EMA’s Facebook page or by visiting https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/f4c4f10102874f489cbd5d5ade8f7e5f.

“The state wants numbers and wants to know who was affected,” Robinson said. “Of course that could open the door for other assistance. I did request the individual assistance from the state yesterday that was opened up … You can use that for food assistance, housing assistance, damage repairs.”

Floods were prevalent in Newton as well. Images of First Avenue near East 12th Street North show water overflowing into the nearby Walgreens parking lot. Jacob Halferty, fire marshal of the Newton Fire Department, said numerous fire alarms had also gone off in the morning, indicating possible lightning strikes.

The Jasper County Courthouse in particular had been struck by lightning, which affected all internet services in the building and even shut down the elevator. Halferty said the lightning strikes just tend to send systems into a frizzy. By 5 o’clock in the morning, he and fire chief Jarrod Wellik were checking road conditions.

“Within five minutes we had probably 20-some calls worth of vehicles stuck in water with people in them near various intersections around town,” Halferty said to Newton News. “Chief Wellik and I kind of started it out and then we had everyone who was working go to different areas.”

Halferty responded to a mini-van filled with a big family and eight inches of water. The vehicle had stalled out after flash floods hit the streets. Emergency vehicles acted as barricades along some of the flooded streets, but that still did not stop some individuals from going around and then stalling out in deep water.

Homes throughout Newton also began filling with water. When residents were given a reprieve from the near-hour-long second wave of rainfall after 10 a.m., they packed inside hardware stores and other shops like Theisen’s in search of pumps and hoses. They spoke about the damage with friends and coworkers.

“I’ve got five feet of water in my basement,” one customer said.

“Me too.”

Halferty said the fire department began getting calls of water-filled basements smelling like smoke. The water had reached the wall outlets, frying them. First responders told residents to turn off their electricity and their gas in some cases. Trailer parks in town also experienced some heavy flooding.

“Newton fared pretty well once the water got drained away,” Haflerty said. “But obviously there is still water in people’s basements and some sewage backup that they gotta deal with. Newton is doing pretty good considering what has happened in Kellogg and Greenfield.”