Rounds and Ward Visit Flood-Ravaged Area in South Dakota

Kevin Schuelke, director of Grant County Emergency Management, has spent nearly a week in southeast South Dakota assisting local agencies in flood-ravaged Yankton, Union, and Clay counties. South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds and Dezmond Ward, Rounds’ chief of staff, visited the area on Thursday, June 27, and also spoke with Schuelke about the crisis. 

Governor Noem’s planned diversion of flood waters devastated the town of McCook Lake in Union County, where the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers converge at the borders of South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.

Damage across the state and adjacent states included the collapse of a BNSF railroad bridge crossing the Big Sioux River north of Sioux City, Iowa, on Sunday night. The Turner County South Dakota Sheriff’s Office also rescued a person Saturday night on Highway 18, where a mile-long section was underwater.

One fatality, preliminarily attributed to the flooding, was reported in Lincoln County. On Saturday, June 22, an all-terrain vehicle driven by an 87-year-old man entered a closed section of roadway five miles northeast of Harrisburg.  According to a news release from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, the shoulder of the road had washed away in the flooding. 

Rainfall totals across the state over the  three-day period of June 20-22 exceeded two inches in many areas, with widespread totals between five and 10 inches  In pockets of southeast South Dakota, northwest Iowa, and southern Minnesota, rain totals between 10 and 20″ were reported. The rapid onset of heavy rainfall created numerous flash floods on June 20, which reoccurred during the evening of June 21.  As rainfall reached streams and rivers, flooding was recorded along the Big Sioux, James, and Vermillion rivers –all three of which flow into the Missouri..  Many cities reported damage, but  the hardest hit appeared to be McCook Lake; the Sioux Falls and Sioux City metro areas; Luverne, Jackson, and Windom in Minnesota;, Spencer Haywarden, Milford, Cherokee, and Correctionville in Iowa.

Submitted Photo