At least two dead in floods in Midwest

NORTH SIOUX CITY, SD – Flooding in the U.S. Midwest killed at least two people, caused a railroad bridge to collapse and caused water to slosh around a dam on Monday after days of heavy rain that forced hundreds of people to evacuate or be rescued from rising waters.

An Illinois man died Saturday while trying to bypass a barricade in Spencer, Iowa, Sioux City’s KTIV-TV reported Monday.

The Little Sioux River swept away his truck, according to a Clay County Sheriff’s press release sent to the police station. Officers found the vehicle in the tree line but were unable to recover his body until Monday due to dangerous conditions.

At least one person has died in South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem said, but did not provide details.

The flooding has added to the misery of parts of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota during a prolonged and persistent heat wave. Temperatures in some flood-affected communities reached nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) on Monday afternoon.

More than three million people live in flood-affected areas, from Omaha, Nebraska, to St. Paul, Minnesota. Storms brought massive amounts of rain from Thursday through Saturday, with as much as 18 inches (460 millimeters) of rain falling south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the National Weather Service said.

Places that didn’t get as much rain still struggled with the extra water flowing downstream. More rain is forecast, and many rivers may not peak until later this week as floodwaters slowly drain through a network of rivers into the Missouri and Mississippi. The Missouri will peak near Omaha on Thursday, said Kevin Low, a weather service hydrologist.

“I’ve never had to evacuate my house before,” said Hank Howley, a 71-year-old resident of North Sioux City, South Dakota, as she joined others on a levee of the swollen Big Sioux River where the railroad bridge had collapsed a day earlier. “We’re at the highest point in town. But what good is that if the rest of town is flooded? That makes me nervous.”

The bridge connected North Sioux City to Sioux City, Iowa, and collapsed into the Big Sioux River around 11 p.m. Sunday, officials said. Images in local media showed a large section of the steel bridge partially submerged as floodwaters rushed over it.

There were no reports of injuries from the collapse. The bridge’s owner, BNSF Railway, had suspended operations during the flooding as a precaution, said spokesman Kendall Sloan. The railway said the bridge is used by only a few trains per day and the diversion is not expected to have a significant impact.

The Big Sioux River level stabilized at about 45 feet Monday morning, more than 7 feet above the previous record, Sioux City Fire Chief Mark Aesoph said.

In North Sioux City, the South Dakota Department of Transportation built a dam across Interstate 29 to contain flooding on Sunday evening, temporarily blocking the main route. In other areas where the interstate remained open, water surged toward the road.

The floods have damaged roads and bridges, forced businesses to close, forced hospitals to evacuate and left cities without power and clean drinking water, the governors of Iowa and South Dakota said.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the flooding in Iowa by his homeland security team, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has deployed personnel to the scene, the White House said.

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Funk, Summer Ballentine, Seung Min Kim, Christopher L. Keller, Scott McFetridge, Mike Phillis and Mark Vancleave of The Associated Press.