Colfax flood toll beginning to be realized

To hear some people in Colfax tell it, the historic flooding in 1993 was more a nuisance than a disaster. Only in the last few days are people fully comprehending the toll of the recent flooding.

“This was the big one,” Carl Noftsger said Monday, referencing the 100-year storm that took place over three days and ended two weeks ago.

When the rain ceased, and people let their guard down, the real devastation began.

Nofstger lives on West Division Street in Colfax, an area on the west side of town that still has speed bumps of debris as tall as a man lining the sides of the road. When the flooding of the South Skunk River first started the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 11, people began making preparations to evacuate. But the waters receded the next day, setting up a dangerous scenario later that night.

“I got up and looked down the street and I could see the water coming,” Nofstger said.

Rushing over to other homes along the block, Nofstger alerted his friends and neighbors to wake up and save what they could. Within minutes, several feet of water had surrounded Nofstger’s home and was making its way onto the porch and into the living room.

Almost two weeks later, the record flooding, which came faster and far higher than anything encountered in 1993, has left every home on West Division Street, as well as many homes in the surrounding blocks, tagged by the building inspector as unlivable for the time being.

The building inspector has tagged residences and businesses with three designations: a red tag means a home is not suitable for residents, a yellow tag means restoration work work can be done, and a green tag means a home is fine to continue being inhabited.

“I don’t know of anybody who has green on this street,” Noftsger said.

The Colfax and New Sharon Fire Departments came by the home of Carl Nofstger and his wife, Donna, this past weekend and helped gut the walls. The home is salvageable, but the couple has no insurance and nowhere else to go.

“We’ve lived here 23 years. It’s kind of hard to back out now,” Donna Nofstger said with a sardonic chuckle.

On Monday afternoon, Donna was the last person in her family scheduled to get a tetnus shot.

The sounds of recovery in Colfax are violent, as dump trucks pick up massive piles of debris from two dump sites as well as makeshift piles along the roads.

Mayor Dave Mast said on Monday that while the aftermath is ugly, it is “definitely” a sign of progress to see the dump sites growing, and furniture, trash bags and appliances spray-painted with an orange “X” accumulating for pickup.

“Absolutely, we’re in the clean-up stage and waiting for FEMA to make a presence,” Mast said.

FEMA has yet to set up a disaster recovery center in town, but officials from the federal department which will provide grants to uninsured victims of the flood are making efforts to let residents know that the key to gaining assistance is to register online (www.disasterassistance.gov) or by calling the relief hotline (800-621-3362).

The law states residents impacted by the floods have until Oct. 14 to register for relief — which is 60 days after the date of the Presidential Disaster Declaration.

“The only way to find out if you’re eligible for relief is to register,” said Don Bolger, a public information officer with FEMA, which is operating out of a Disaster Recovery Center in Des Moines. The center is located at the Boys & Girls Club at 1740 Garfield Ave., and affected individuals can also go directly to the center for more information.

The Small Business Association (SBA) is working in partnership with FEMA, as several officers were canvassing the area to let businesses and resident know about low-interest loan assistance that will also be available in the case they do not qualify for FEMA grant money.

If there is anything positive to be found in the flooding, Mast said, it’s that officials responding to the floods are more coordinated than they were in the past to disasters. The Coflax building inspector and officials from MidAmerican Energy were going around to homes and businesses together this past weekend to survey the damage, streamlining the process on how quickly the structures affected by the flooding can begin the process of being put back together.

And yet, many people are still unsure of what to do or where to go. Some are considering leaving the area all together.

As Pat Williams, who has lived in the home across the street from the Nofstgers for the past 40 years, put it: “They said [1993] was a 100-year flood, and I thought I wouldn’t live that long to see another.”

The basement and bottom floor of her and her husband’s two-story home is completely ravaged.

“The money that’s going to take to put this back up is going to be horrible,” Williams said. “You wonder if it’s worth it.”