Revealing History

I thought the picture that is included with this post was interesting. The Mossman Law Firm has decided to undergo a large remodeling of their facade. It will be all brick with a clock tower on the corner. First, they have to remove all the old brick. Under the old brick was the sign for the old Cromer Distributing Co. store. As I understand, this was a department store in downtown Vinton.

Vinton Flood

Its been awhile since my last blog post. The city of Vinton, Iowa was flooded this past week. Despite heroic efforts by city crews, Iowa National Guard soldiers, and hundreds of volunteers, we lost our fire station, electric generation and distribution buildings, the old main sewer lift station, the Benton County Sheriff and Jail building and several homes. Despite all this, we feel fortunate as other cities, such as Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are experiencing much worst. We had electric back on in a couple of days with the help of some generator trucks and never lost our water supply. For pictures of the flooding, please visit the City's website, www.vintoniowa.net.

Minor Flooding

This past Thursday and Friday, we received 2-3 inches of rain in a short amount of time. This caused Henkle and Mud Creeks, both of which flow into the Cedar River to overflow their banks and cause some flooding. Henkle Creek flows almost through the center of the city and caused some damage to a few houses and some businesses. There wasn't more damaged caused than this, other than water in basements from seepage through the ground, because the city has done a pretty good job of keeping buildings from being built in the floodplain. The creeks subsided about as fast as they came up, so by evening most things were back to normal.