Iowa City flooding close to a 5-year event

Tuesday's flash flooding in Iowa City rates somewhere short of a once-in-five-years event, said Rick Fosse, the city's public works director.

There was flooding on several streets, including Dubuque Street, Stevens Drive, Dodge Street, Jefferson Street, Iowa Avenue and First, Second and Third avenues, he said.

Water was moving so fast that it pulled off the asphalt overlay on Glendale Road near Seventh Avenue and on the 600 block of Van Buren Street, Fosse said. Crews will be out to repair those streets Wednesday.

The uncommon level of flooding was caused by the city seeing more than two inches of rain in one hour, Fosse said.

“Our pain threshold, if you will, is about one inch an hour,” he said.

He said water accumulation is not a problem in small watersheds because they drain quickly, as opposed to the Iowa River, so the rain forecast for the rest of this week does not necessarily mean there will be more flooding. The saturated ground will create more runoff, however, he said.