The 2016 Flood in Chickasaw County

Chickasaw County, Iowa

On August 23 and 24 of 2016 the flooding that would persist into the fall began with a tragedy. In the predawn hour of 4:40 am a man drove into water from the Little Turkey River that was covering the road. He was swept off the roadway by the rushing water of the flash flood. Although he managed to call 911, he could not be rescued. His body was found the next day a third of a mile from where his car was found. This tragedy was among the night’s events that included drenching rains, closed roads, and evacuations in much of northern Iowa.
In early October the County Engineer was still—again—trying to open roads damaged by flooding the previous week. Instead of the usual complaints about road dust in the fall dry season, all the challenges were related to flooding. He reckoned that the back-to-back floods of August 24, September 9, and September 22 cost the county about $1 million in damage to roads and overtime for road crews.
In the November 2016 Natural Hazards Assessment for Chickasaw County, the National Weather Service at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, reported that 2016 was the wettest year on record with 52.57 inches measured.
1999 had been bad. Almost 12 inches of rain fell in the New Hampton area and every creek and river in the county flooded. Water topped the dam at Cedar Lake, flooding homes in Nashua. Some water reached into the downtown area. Highways 18, 63, and 346 were closed because of flood waters. Damage was reported at over $2 million. And still 2016 was wetter.
2008 was the flood of memory in eastern Iowa when waters rose yet higher on the Turkey River in 2016. The mayor of Fort Atkinson in neighboring Winneshiek County asked, “If they’re going to call that [2008] a 500-year flood what are they going to call this?”

Sources: on line: John Molseed and Pat Kinney, “One Dead, Many Evacuated in NE Iowa Flooding,” wcf Courier, August 24, 2016; Bob Fenske, “A Month Like No Other,” New Hampton/Chickasaw County Tribune, October 1, 2016; www.weather.gov, NOAA-National Weather Service-LaCrosse, November 2016.