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Cedar River storms out of its banks, threatens Hesse's home Monday, June 16, 2008
Agri News staff writer
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- When Chuck and Lisa Hesse woke up at 5:30 a.m. June 10, the Cedar River was within 100 feet of their farm house. The night before the river was at least 400 yards from the house.
They had never seen the river, which is three-quarters of a mile away when it's in its banks, that high.
"It was startling to see how much the water came up," Lisa said.
The Hesses' house sits on a hill and didn't flood. Some of their neighbors to the south weren't as lucky.
"After it came up so fast overnight, we weren't really sure if it would get to the house," Lisa said.
Lisa owns a beauty shop in Cedar Falls, which is close to Dry Run Creek. They decided to go to town and make sure that wasn't going to flood. At the nearby fire station, they told Chuck the shop would be fine. They quickly headed home.
"When we drove into town, Highway 218 was open, on the way home one of the southbound lanes had water across it," Lisa said. "It wasn't long and they closed the highway."
The Hesses' farm on Waverly Road was the last place that could be reached on the road going south.
"We had a lot of people parking in our yard and launching their boats into our field," Lisa said.
Chuck drove his tractor to the neighbor's to the south and helped him pull four grain trucks, three pickups, two cars, and a stock trailer to higher ground.
"They're all sitting in our yard," Lisa said. "The water was two feet deep when they started and it was five feet when Chuck said he was done," Lisa said. "I was kind of scared when I saw my husband throw life jackets in the tractor. The water got so deep that they couldn't see the road. They wanted us to stand in the middle of the road."
The farm sites to the south all had water around their houses. Some just had water in their basements. In some it reached the first floor. Some neighbors are using their tractors to get to their houses.
Lisa said her brother-in-law lives two places south of them and he was surrounded by water. He tied a boat to his deck and used that to get around.
Chuck estimates all but 15 of his 100-acre soybean field was under water. He has ground near Cottage Row, an area next to the river in Cedar Falls, and he assumes that was completely under water.
Lisa's garden is in a low spot and half of it was under water. Allison, 12, plucked her mother's pepper and tomato plants and replanted them in a planter boxes by the house. When it dries out, they'll replant them in the garden.
They watched things float through their field including a neighbor's outhouse.
"Most of the water in our field has gone down," Lisa said. "We have about 15 acres still underwater. Chuck thinks that more than half of the beans should make it."
Chuck said the water table is so high that even the fields that weren't flooded have water coming up in them. If it dries out soon, he'll replant beans. If it doesn't, he'll settle for what he has. He has crop insurance on all his acres except for a couple of fields that are considered high risk. The insurance costs too much for those.
As the water receded it deposited a lot of corn stalks on top of the beans. Chuck bought his daughters Allison and Andrea, 10, new rakes so that they can rake the corn stalks off.
Chuck said that he can see some big logs in his field but the debris isn't too bad. He farms land near New Hartford that has much more debris on it from the tornado.
The night before the river came up they watched deer come up and swim through the flooded fields with their fawns. The deer left their babies in a neighbor's hay field.
"We'll be talking about this for the rest of our lives," Lisa said. "We never thought that the river would get that close."
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