Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
The Turkey River may have stopped rising in the northeastern Iowa city of Elkader, but extensive damage has already been done to the downtown area.
A few shop owners have begun clean-up in Elkader, but most can do little more than to sit and wait as flood waters slowly recede. When the Turkey River is at 12 feet, the area experiences minor flooding in areas near the river. At 9 p.m. Tuesday the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisc. reported the river to be slightly above 22 feet — well below the river’s Monday night crest at 31 feet. The water topped a levee and prompted the evacuation of roughly 100 homes and numerous businesses.
“There’s just not much that we can do,” said James Miller, a local businessman, as he watched the river rage under the Keystone Arch Bridge Tuesday afternoon. “We’ll start cleaning when we can. Right now, we wait.”
The National Weather Service is predicting that the river will fall below flood stages in Elkader late Wednesday.
The southern portion of the community has been hardest hit, with flood waters remaining knee deep on Main St. even late Tuesday. Although Clayton County Emergency Management is not yet ready to release monetary estimates of the damage, a much less extensive flood in April brought about $100,000 of damage just to Elkader, a city that has put a great deal of time and energy into development of its riverfront area as a tourism and recreation location.
The Turkey River at Elkader had a previous crest high on June 15, 1991 of 27.33 feet.
The video clips below were shot in the downtown area, most near the historic arch bridge. The structure was constructed of locally quarried limestone in 1889, and is the longest keystone arch bridge west of the Mississippi River. At the time this video was shot, the river was estimated to be at 27 feet.
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