State emergency management officials say there have been relatively few concerns pop up today (Friday) as the floodwaters rose in western Iowa. Spokesperson Lucinda Robertson says there was a problem with the levee near Hamburg. Robertson says Fremont County requested bentonite to repair a small area in the northeast corner of the secondary levee, and they were able to obtain this material from Mills County and make the repair. Robertson says there have been no other concerns with any of the levees today. She did say there is some concern about people not being safe around the floodwaters.

Robertson says people who have been touring various areas have seen people walking or people playing in the floodwaters, which she says is “very dangerous.” She says the public should stay out of the floodwaters because of a variety of things that could happen to them. Robertson says mental health teams have been visiting the flood areas, and in some cases residents have seemed to be oblivious to the disaster around them.

She says the crisis counselors visiting Council Bluffs estimated that people in half the homes they visited were unaware that there was the potential for flooding in their neighborhood. Robertson made her comments during a daily update from the state Homeland Security Emergency Management Division.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

AMES, Iowa – June 17, 2011: 6 p.m. – The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is
reporting the following sections of Interstate 29 and 680 have been reopened to
traffic as a result of flood mitigation efforts.

Highway segments reopened
· I-680 from milepost 21 (near Beebeetown) to I-29
· I-29 from milepost 71 (near Loveland) to mile post 75 (Missouri Valley)

A major, multiday effort between the Iowa DOT and Department of Corrections to place
sandbags and barrier wall along the highways, and use pumps to divert some of the
flood/ground waters, has allowed the interchange to reopen.

Both directions of traffic are being allowed through the area. This reestablishes a
critical link between north- and southbound I-29 traffic. 
The continued success and duration of this mitigation effort is entirely dependent
on the extent of rising flood and ground water levels. 

Closures in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area expected to remain in effect for a
considerable duration
· I-29 is closed from milepost 55 (25th Street in Council Bluffs) north to milepost
71 (near Loveland)
· I-680 is closed from the I-29/680 interchange (exit 61 near Crescent) in Iowa to
North 30th Street in Omaha (exit 13). This closure includes the Mormon 
Bridge across the Missouri River.

Updated I-29 detour route for Council Bluffs/Omaha area
· Detour starts at the I-29/680 interchange near Loveland, continues east on I-680,
then southwest on I-80 into Council Bluffs
· I-80 east- and westbound remains open through Council Bluffs/Omaha

No injuries were reported following an accident Thursday afternoon in a Cass County Memorial Hospital parking lot. Atlantic Police say a vehicle driven by Arlen Rainey, of Atlantic, was turning west onto East 10^th Street from Hospital Drive, as a vehicle driven by Michael Tomkins, of Clearmont, MO, was backing into the lot to unload cargo.

Tomkins didn’t see Rainey’s vehicle. The resulting collision caused $2,500 damage to Rainey’s vehicle, but there was no discernable damage to the truck driven by Tomkins. No citations were issued following the mishap, which happened at around 1:10-p.m. Thursday.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say eight people were arrested this week in Red Oak on drug charges. On Wednesday, the execution of a search warrant at 301 West 5^th Street in Red Oak resulted in the recovery of a sizeable amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, along with the arrest of 30-year olds John Tallman and Tiffany Marts, both of Red Oak. Tallman was charged with two-counts of delivery of marijuana, 1 count of delivery of Methamphetamine, Possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver, and violation of the drug tax stamp. His bond was set at $50,000. Marts was charged with Possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver, and a drug tax stamp violation. Her bond was set at $5,000.

On Thursday, authorities raided a home at 608 East Grimes Street in Red Oak, and seized meth along with other drug-related items. 28-year old Kyle Archer, of Red Oak, was charged with 3 counts of delivery of Methamphetamine. He was being held in the Union County Jail on an unrelated matter, and will be brought to Montgomery County when his sentences has been served in Union County.

Today (Friday), search warrants were executed at 4:30-a.m. at 1109 Miller Avenue and 1600 East Summit Street, unit 214, both in Red Oak. Officials say a small amount of narcotics were seized along with drug paraphernalia. Taken into custody, was 26-year old Natosha Cralley, of Red Oak, who was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and, 32-year old Leonard Wright, of Red Oak, who was charged with 3 counts of delivery of Methamphetamine. Cralley was cited and released, while Wright was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $50,000 bond. Also arrested this (Friday) morning, was 18-year old Timothy Humphrey, who was wanted on a Douglas County, Nebraska warrant for Dangerous Drugs. He was being held without bond for Douglas County authorities.

Three other Red Oak residents were arrested this (Friday) morning on drug charges, as well. 29-year old Brice Reed was charged with 2-counts of delivery of marijuana. 25-year old Joshua Hughes, and 33-year old Jeremy Joel Binns, were charged with delivery of Methamphetamine. Reed was being held in jail on $5,000 bond, while Hughes’ Binns’ bonds were set at $50,000 each.

An official with Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha says a toddler who was unresponsive after being pulled from a pool last week in Carter Lake, has died. Cherie Lytle, media relations liaison for the hospital says 16-month-old Kaialani Fujii, of Council Bluffs had died, but she couldn’t release information as to date of death.

The toddler had been listed in critical condition after falling into a pool at 1509 Ave. Q in Carter Lake. According to police reports, the child was pulled out of the pool by a family member at around 8-p.m. June 10th. Law enforcement and medical personnel found the child unresponsive upon arrival.

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations and Carter Lake police initially said the incident appears to have been an accident, but it remains under investigation.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – Officials say a leak in a levee protecting the town of Hamburg from the flooding Missouri River has been fixed. The seepage began yesterday evening in an area around a farm drainage pipe.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district construction chief Robert Michaels says the leak has been fixed and crews were reinforcing the sandy ground on the levee’s northern edge. Michaels says the corps will build a 50-foot long berm along the levees edge to reinforce it against any water pushing under the levee.

Corps spokeswoman Sarah Gross says work on the levee was substantially done by this (Friday) morning. Michaels says the corps will continue to monitor and strengthen the levee until the water recedes.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The filmmaker behind a new documentary on Republican Sarah Palin says his team is scouting Iowa farms, town squares and other casual settings for the upcoming premiere of “The Undefeated.” Stephen Bannon says he wants to debut the film somewhere that captures the “Iowa-ness of it all” and connects it to the message of populist “grit and tenacity” he’s delivering about Palin. It traces Palin’s life from before she became Alaska governor past her GOP campaign for the vice presidency.

Bannon insisted Friday that Palin had no editorial role in making the film. He says plans for debuting it in coming weeks in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – all presidential nominating contest battlegrounds – is about building movie buzz and not coordinated with any possible Palin 2012 bid.

w/ News Director Ric Hanson

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The Page & Fremont County Sheriffs are reminding the residents of their counties to use extra caution when travelling, entering, or exiting on Highways 2, 71, and 59 in those Counties due to the extra traffic on the roadways associated with the Interstate 29 detour.  The official detour, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation, does not include Highway 59, but there has been a substantial traffic increase on all of the mentioned highways.  

If you generally walk, jog, or bicycle ride on those roads,  authorities are advising that other, less travelled roads, be utilized during the detour period.  It is unknown how long this detour will be, as it could change with entrance / exit points of I-29 from the flooding.

PERU, Neb. (AP) – Another American Red Cross shelter has been set up for Nebraska and Iowa victims of Missouri River flooding. The Red Cross says the new one is in southeast Nebraska, at Peru State College in Peru, NE.

Another 24-hour Nebraska shelter is at Fort Calhoun High School at Fort Calhoun, north of Omaha. Two 24-hour shelters have been set up in Iowa: at Missouri Valley High School in Missouri Valley and at Sidney High School in Sidney.

Other shelters are on standby in Cass, Cedar, Dixon, Douglas, Sarpy and Thurston counties in Nebraska, Pottawattamie County in Iowa.