Flooding in Iowa, July 19 to 22, 1999

The Cedar River experienced record flooding due to excessive rainfall amounts. On the 19th, the river crested at 18.26 feet at Charles City (Floyd County). Two days later on the 21st, the river had an all-time record crest at Charles City of 22.80 feet. Cooperative observer rainfall reports from the 19th through the 21st included 11.81 inches at Charles City, 10.75 inches at Osage (Mitchell County) and 11.85 inches at New Hampton (Chickasaw County).Nearly every creek, stream and river in Chickasaw and Floyd Counties was bankfull or flooding during the National Weather Service storm survey. Many roads were impassable. There was extensive evidence of flash flooding from heavy rains that fell the night before. On the Cedar River, approximately 100 homes in Charles City had some type of flood damage. Only the Main street bridge was passable and flood waters had crossed onto sections of Highway 218, closing businesses. The river level was so high, it peaked the river gauge there, but had started to slowly fall as of early afternoon on the 21st. Downstream in Nashua (Chickasaw County), water had topped the dam at Cedar Lake, flooding nearby homes. Some water was crossing Highway 346, but had backed up along the train bridge there, allowing water to rise into the downtown area. Sand bagging efforts were in full swing as the river crested. Sections of the Wapsipinicon and Little Wapsipinicon River were nearly a mile wide, flooding nearby fields and closing sections of Highways 18, 346 and 63. Mitchell, Howard, Floyd and Chickasaw counties were declared federal disaster areas.