I wrote this column a little later than usual, but it was due to an event that is supposed to happen only once every 100 years. Some say only once in 500 years. Here, as it has turned out, it happened twice in the last 9 years.

In a 24-hour period that occurred mainly around the date of June 3, we had about 8 inches of rain. This caused the Maquoketa River to rise to levels that surpassed previous records that were set in 1949 and 1993.

On June 4, Prairie Creek flooded to a level that was worse than anyone can remember. Flooding from the creek submerged and closed a section of New Highway 61. Flooding of the creek also closed S Main Street/Old Highway 61. By the next day, the flood waters had disappeared, but so had 16 of the picnic tables at Horseshoe Pond Park.

Other damage within the park included: an electrical panel and two pumps at the South Slope Lift Station (initially valued at $35,000 total,) flooding of the Salvation Army/Citadel Building, flooding of the new restrooms/shower facilities, washing away of some camper pads and trail areas, and erosion along the creek and road.

During the night on June 5, the height of the Maquoketa River overcame the human efforts to hold it back any longer. Areas around the wastewater plant, the Grove Street ball fields, North Street, North Main, and Pershing Road were flooded. Several buildings within this area were also flooded.

In the last couple of days, there have been a lot of news reports about what happened, so I'm not going to try to duplicate what's already been reported.

During this time, I was interviewed a couple of times about how the City was affected by the flood. I was chosen for this due to the job title that I hold and not due to the actual level of contribution that I made to the efforts at hand. There are many, many more people who contributed to the City's efforts more than I did.

During events like this flood, I have found that it is important to listen to people who have knowledge and experience from similar situations and let them do what they know needs to be done. Second to that, it is important to try to get them the equipment and other support that they need.

For me, this is a time when we should realize that we have friends and public employees who went beyond the call of duty to help us.

At the top of the list has to be the men who work for the Maquoketa Public Works Dept and Alliance Water Resources who staff our water/wastewater depts.

The Public Works Dept stayed on in shifts that went around the clock mainly to man the pumps to keep flooding to the lowest minimum possible.

Alliance Water Resources put in a lot of time and energy in order to keep the South Slope Lift Station operating and to protect the wastewater plant from the flood waters that threatened to enter the building that contains the electronics that operate the plant.

I know that I will miss mentioning several that helped us, but these are among the many:

Maquoketa Police Dept.

Volunteer Fire Dept and other volunteers who helped with sandbagging.

Maquoketa Municipal Electric Utility staff members who protected the power plant and assisted our Public Work employees.

The Army Corps of Engineers who loaned us 6 large pumps.

Jackson County Civil Defense and the County Engineer's Office

The City Hall staff who helped with sandbagging and arranging for food and pop for the volunteers.

The employees of Staab Construction and ESCO who were rained-out from working on the renovation of our wastewater plant and helped our City crews with sandbagging.

KMAQ for broadcasting our need for volunteers.

The City of Wyoming for donating sandbags.

The IA DOT for transporting pumps from the Army Corps of Engineers' base near Le Claire.

What follows will be a period of clean-up and damage assessment. This is the type of work that you hate to do because there is always a sense of waste in feeling that you now have to clean, fix, or replace property that wasn't dirty, broken, or lost only a couple of days before.

However, it is the type of work that has to be done and will be done with time.

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I was watching CNN a couple of weeks ago. They were doing a profile on the life of Liz Taylor. At one point, they were showing snap-shots of the various men in her life, like Nicky Hilton, Richard Todd, Eddie Fisher, etc.

I then used the TV remote to flip the channel to another station. After about 15 seconds, I flipped back to CNN.

On CNN, I saw a still photo of Roger Stewart. After that came another one. I thought, "How does Roger Stewart know Liz Taylor?"

Then I realized that I was watching a TV commercial for Roger's campaign for the Iowa State Senate.

On May 30, Roger and I were among several people who were invited to the grand opening of Family Dollar's new 907,000 sq. ft. distribution center. While there, I asked if he had been one of Liz's many husbands, but he wasn't able to say that he ever was.

He then asked me to guess how much it cost to run one of his 30-second commercials over the local cable TV system that serves both Maquoketa and Clinton.

I guessed $500.

"Lower," he said.

"$250."

"Lower."

Others started guessing, "$200." "$100." "$50."

"Lower." He then told us, and it was pretty low. However, I don't know if it is a campaign secret, so I'll leave it to any of you who are curious to ask him for yourselves.

As it turned out, June 4, Roger won the Democratic primary election for the State Senate district that represents Maquoketa, Jackson County, and Clinton County. He will now go on to play in the finals this coming November.

Roger has been a long time friend of the City's, and I wish him well on the campaign trail.