son, Tim, travel from Syracuse, Ne- braska, to Hamburg, Iowa, it typically takes 35 minutes. After flooding dam- aged roads their trip now takes two hours (one way). He remains hopeful that Highway 2 will open soon.
“If you look out to the south today (April 5), there’s still four feet of water covering the south end of town,” said Keim. Of the town’s 560 homes, 167 (30%) were flooded and 88% of businesses sustained water damage. “The entire community has really come together to help get people and businesses back on their feet.”
KEIM EQUIPMENT | Hamburg, IA
When Bruce Keim got word Thurs- day afternoon (March 14) that there was a chance of flooding in Ham- burg, they started moving all of the machinery from Keim Equipment to higher ground outside of town. When he spoke with the Hamburg mayor on Saturday, the Missouri River was projected to reach 4 feet at the levee outside of town. Since the levy was designed to protect up to 6 feet, they felt the floodwaters wouldn’t get into town. However, by that evening, the Army Corps of Engineers changed the projected flood level to more than 6.5 feet above the levee protecting the town after the Spencer Dam broke.
Dealership employees spent Sunday moving parts and computers up to higher locations so they wouldn’t get wet. That morning the town put Hesco barriers up from east to west across the middle of town in hopes that if water got into the south end it would prevent it from breaching the north side. The barrier held until Monday morning when the north end of town had to be evacuated.
14 | The Retailer Magazine | May/June
In the end, the main store took on two inches, the warehouse six inches and the shop eight inches of water. By Wednesday afternoon the water had receded. Thursday employees got busy cleaning and on Friday they moved the displays and parts out of the deal- ership so ServiceMaster could come in and clean the floors. After airing out on Sunday, everything was moved back in Monday and the dealership opened for business on Tuesday. “We never experienced floodwater in the store before, including during the floods of 1952, 1993 and 2011,” said Keim. “This was a first for us.”
Electricity was restored shortly after they opened and gas was expected to be restored by the end of April. Water will take much longer due to the water treatment plant being covered by floodwaters. “Clean-up was and continues to be a step by step, day by day deal,” said Keim.
“There are still a lot of roads im- pacted by flooding, which makes it difficult for people who work back and forth between Iowa and Nebraska,” explained Keim. When Bruce and his
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