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1 dead after storms dump heavy rain blown by strong wind across much of Iowa

News, Weather

July 1st, 2018 by Ric Hanson

Strong thunderstorms packed heavy rain and wind Saturday evening and overnight. Here in Atlantic, we had received 1.88-inches of rain as of 9:50-p.m., Saturday. The gully washers came in two waves, the first of which began at around 6-p.m. The second produced some street flooding, the worst of which appeared to have been at Mulberry and East 3rd Street Place, where water was flowing down the street like a river for a time, and was easily two-feet deep.

Two-miles south of Creston, one-inch diameter hail was reported at around 7:30-p.m. Several tree branches, two- to four-inches in diameter were broken by the winds in Menlo, at around 8:30-p.m. In Winterset, a roof was blown off of a home and large trees fell around town at around 9-p.m. At about the same time, winds were gusting to near 60 mph in Panora.

In Central Iowa there were numerous reports of heavy rain and street flooding. KCCI reports a 65-year-old Des Moines man was swept away by floodwaters late Saturday near 50th Street and Twana Avenue. First responders found his body at around 12:40 a.m. today (Sunday).

As much as 10-inches of rain fell on the north side of Ankeny (as of 10:15-p.m.), 7.5-inches was reported in the Saylorville area, 7.2-inches was reported in the Urbandale area, 7.1-inches in Johnston, and 6.9-inches had fallen later Saturday night in the Alleman area.

Numerous reports of water rescues were underway across Ankeny, Johnston, Des Moines and Urbandale, where water was chest deep in some locations. The Iowa Department of Transportation reports some roads were partially closed due to flooding, including I-35 northbound between Ankeny and Alleman, where there were delays due to flooding across the Interstate. A portion of Highway 44 in Dallas County was also experiencing flooding, causing traffic delays.

And, the city of Ankeny was placed under a boil order after a water main broke Saturday night.