MASON CITY – The City of Mason City has posted a flood information update for citizens on Friday, June 15, 2018.
A storm recovery guide is available at the Cerro Gordo County Health Department website. The guide provides good information and resources useful with dealing with storm recovery.
REMINDER TO RESIDENTS (6/14/18):
****Flood-damaged items are to be placed on the curb for pick-up. This may not necessarily be where you place your normal sanitation collection items. City crews are NOT picking up flood-damaged items in alleys.
*Flood Information Update 6/13/18:
The City will be providing flood damaged item pickup starting Monday June 18, Interim City Administrator Kevin Jacobson said.
Pickup of the flood damaged items will be on the same day as resident’s normal garbage pickup day. For example, if your garbage is picked up on Tuesday, your flood damaged items will be picked up Tuesday as well.
All flood damaged items need to be placed at the curb for pickup by the normal garbage pickup time.
Items such as carpet, appliances, hot water heaters, washers and dryers, computers, televisions, sheet rock, water damaged furniture, and other household items should be set at the curb.
Do not set out paints or chemicals. Those should be boxed up and taken to the Landfill of North Iowa for safe disposal. City crews can not pick these items up.
In other flood related news, flood response center operators haste received 197 requests for cleanup up or damage reports, according to Steve O’Neil, Cerro Gordo County Emergency Management coordinator.
Christian Disaster Relief, Inc., (CDR) teams will be sending at least three crews of four to Mason City starting Thursday.
The crews will be assisting with the cleaning of basements. Persons who have requested assistance should be ready to answer their phones from the crews so they can get access to start cleanup, O’Neil said.
The crews will have identification cards and most of their cars will be marked with magnetic signs identifying them. CDR is affiliated with the Mennonite church.
Members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Mason City have also been doing volunteer cleanup.
Persons or organizations wanting to volunteer with flood clean up may contact O’Neil at 641-421-3665.
The City is in a flood emergency response mode at this time. Large item pick-up and other items will be addressed in the near future once we out of this mode.
*Sandbags are available at the City’s Operations & Maintenance office at 725 North Massachusetts.
*At this time there are no concerns with the City’s Water Treatment Plant and the community’s water supply is safe.
*Flood clean-up kits are available for those who need them in Mason City. They are available at the Mason City Fire Department and the directions in using them are fairly simple. Get as much of the material out of your basement as you can, carpets, furniture, clean that outside. If you can’t clean it, please dispose of it. Otherwise rinse everything down. A bleach mixture, and the instructions are with that are very important.
*If your water heater or furnace were impacted by flooding you need to get those checked out before trying to use them again. If those were impacted by the flooding, and the pilot light was taken out, before you try to re-start that, please call your service man and have those inspected before you try to light those and re-use those again.
*The State Individual Assistance Program may assist those who fall within 200% of the poverty level. It is a $5000 maximum amount of funds that can be provided. It is a reimbursement, so those funds must be expended, and then people can apply for those. That is handled by the Department of Human Services and they can go to that website and register, and those funds will be made available very soon.
*Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley is asking people to use some common sense if more rain impacts the area and once again causes flooding. If you aren’t signed up for the city’s notification system, do so immediately. Visit the city’s website at www.masoncity.net, and sign up on the CodeRED link on the left side of the home page. Code Red is a geographic-specific notification system that we will use to help notify residents if there is flooding and if evacuations and other circumstances arise. We would also encourage people to follow the Mason City Police Department and the City of Mason City on social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
*Please refrain from traveling around Mason City in the event there is more rainfall.
*Do not swim or recreate in any flooded areas as you could be putting your life at risk with hidden dangers.
*Mason City’s Operations and Maintenance Manager Bill Stangler is asking the city’s residents to try to reduce the amount of water going into the sanitary sewer system as the sanitary sewer plant is running at capacity. Please conserve on as much water as you can in using it. If you can cut back on washing multiple loads of clothes please do that. Any water that is less in going to the treatment plant would be a benefit. We are discharging from nine different locations in the collection system — but we will continue to do that until we get the surcharge down where it’s manageable at the wastewater treatment plant.
Some residents have questioned why there’s been flooding in some areas of the community that haven’t seen flooding before. Stangler says as of this time, he doesn’t have a good answer to those questions. “At this point in time, I don’t have an answer for you as to why it is. I’m aware of the areas that were flooding and I’ve never seen areas, on Kentucky, that flood. In all likelihood, it could just be rain events of that magnitude just over a period of time taxed the system to its max, and that’s what’s going to happen, the water is going to back up on the streets.”
*Stangler says his department will look at doing a special large-item pick-up once his department gets out of emergency mode, and adds people can always call his department and schedule a large-item pick-up like has been done in normal situations the last few years.
*There are phone numbers available for the Mason City Flood Response Center. These numbers are for residents to report cleanup/damage and also if they are interested to volunteer to assist with clean-up efforts. At this time, the phones will staffed until 4 pm Monday and from 9 am-4 pm Tuesday. Citizens are encouraged to keep trying if they reach a busy signal.
The numbers are:
494-3546
494-3547
494-3543
494-3544
