Storm causes damage in Jones County, at fair

MONTICELLO - Within 12 hours of Friday's storms blowing through Monticello, the sight of people chopping fallen trees and the sound of trucks hauling away the branches filled the town.

“At 8 (Saturday) morning, there were already trees cut up and loaded into truck and neighbors and friends just show up,” said Brenda Leonard, emergency management coordinator with Jones County.

Leonard said Monticello, and specifically the area near the Jones County Fairgrounds, “took the brunt” of the damage from the high winds and thunderstorms that stretched through parts of Eastern Iowa.

No major injuries from the storms were reported, Leonard said. Some people did lose power, especially in and around Anamosa, but she said it was “nothing extreme.”

As for property loss, Leonard said “really big trees” did fall on two houses, one close to the fairgrounds and another on Monticello's west side.

The storm means the Great Jones County Fair, for yet another year, is having to battle severe weather to keep its schedule intact.

Fairgrounds General Manager John Harms said organizers and participants have dealt with a high level of wet weather for years.

“In the last 23 fair days, which is about 5 years, we've gotten about 25 inches of rain,” he said. “We are averaging just above an inch a day.”

Last year, organizers had to cancel the last two days of the fair, hours after the Lake Delhi dam was breached early July 24. The overflowing Maquoketa River bore down on Monticello, about 20 miles downstream.

Looking back at 2010, Leonard said she was very impressed by the turnout of volunteers for sandbagging and executing the emergency plan.

“I thought everything went very smoothly,” she said. “We knew what elevations we needed to shoot for because we had the National Weather Service run a model if the dam ever did breach, where would we see flooding.”

Fair organizers had to cancel last year's top musical acts because of floodwater, but this year's weather-related changes are fairly minimal. Harms said the stock car races were postponed, but the rest of the events are on schedule, including last night's rock concert.

“You go with the flow and you just adapt,” he said.

Harms said some crews were at the grounds by 5 a.m. Saturday morning to try and get the cleanup finished quickly.

“When something like this happens, everyone just rolls up their sleeves and does what they need to do,” he said.