My Flooded Homeland

Tuesday Update -- My dad did make the game, which Belmond won 5-2.

The head coach of the Belmond-Klemme girls softball team may or may not be on the field tonight when the Broncos square off against the Green Devils of Osage.

The coach is my father, as you might know, and he and my mother are stranded by flood waters south of Belmond in Wright County. North of my old home place, a creek that flows into the Iowa River has swollen and smothered the gravel road. To their south, the Iowa River has swamped both the gravel road and US Highway 69. Those are the only two routes out.

This sort of thing has happened before, with my father wading out or riding in a tractor or big truck to dry land. But he says this is the worst he's ever seen it, so escape may not be possible for a while. As of midday, he hadn't quite resigned himself to being flooded from the coach's box.

US 69 is closed through Belmond and water from the Iowa River has actually reached the highway in town, which I never saw growing up there. In fact, I actually found a YouTube showing Belmond's unusual flooding issues. Here it is, all 23 seconds worth, for any expatriates like myself wondering from afar.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfEmP0lC5QU]