Mud, water remain at Jones County fairgrounds

It will be a while before officials start thinking about the economic and financial impact several feet of floodwater will have on future fairs, Great Jones County Fair general manager John Harms said Monday.

First, he said, there's much cleanup left to do.

Low-lying areas of the fairgrounds – particularly the entertainment stage area and the livestock barns – were inundated with water from the Maquoketa River Saturday after the dam at Lake Delhi gave way, spilling water to communities to the south.

“Don't even ask me about numbers, we haven't even started to think about that,” Harms said Monday afternoon.

More than three feet of water filled the livestock barns and more than six feet of water surrounded the new entertainment stage Saturday, coming within just three inches of spilling over onto the new structure.

Harms said livestock in the barns was evacuated Saturday morning because of the threat of rising waters, and that process “went pretty smoothly,” he said.

“Everyone understood the seriousness of the water,” he said, and owners “were listening to what we were saying about the flooding and the need to evacuate the animals.”

Harms said the stage wasn't damaged and could have held the bands for that night's concert, but it was inaccessible.

“You can't get semis and buses through six feet of water,” he said.

The Saturday concert – Styx, Joan Jett and Grand Funk Railroad – was canceled.

Fairgoers were given free gate admission – which is normally $10 – both Saturday night and all day Sunday, Harms said.

“We opened it up to make it a free event out of respect to the vendors who were staying with us and the fairgoers who were still coming out,” Harms said. “We know some of them came because there was nothing they could do at home yet.”

Despite the flooding and the history of bad weather – Monticello has seen serious storms during the Great Jones County Fair for at least the last four years – Harms said there have been no discussions to move the date.

“Why would we do that?” he said. “You take any 10 days in Iowa and you're going to have bad weather. It's not the dates, it's just bad luck.”

“This fair has never seen a flood in 158 years of business, so why would you think to plan for one?” he said.