Significant flooding occurred in rural areas of Wright County over the weekend. This is land just outside of Clarion. — Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Bruce Voigts

Hail shredded a corn field in Wright County.

The Wright County Fair area in Eagle Grove experienced significant flooding issues during Saturday and Sunday’s torrential rains. –Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Bruce Voigts

“It’s been a lot in a short period of time,” said Wright County Emergency Management Coordinator Jarika Eisentrager.

Wright County received quarter- to ping pong ball-sized hail on Saturday, July 6. The hail totaled vehicles and roofs and stripped leaves and branches from trees. That, in turn, blocked storm drains.

“Saturday’s hail storm caused a lot of damage,” said Eisentrager. “We have crops that are decimated and a lot of vehicle and roof damage. But the leaves and trees that blocked storm drains, that really didn’t help us with last night’s rain.”

Wright County was targeted again by Mother Nature less than 24 hours after the first storm as a severe thunderstorm dropped between 5 to 7 inches of rain throughout the county, flooding the communities of Eagle Grove, Clarion and Goldfield.

The National Weather Service didn’t have an official rainfall total as of Monday afternoon, but it said that radar estimates in Eagle Grove alone were between 4 to 5 inches of rain.

According to Eisentrager, multiple roads throughout the county remained closed Monday due to flooding. She said Wright County Secondary Roads was able to open up some roads as water retreated back into ditches.

“We have a lot of water in a lot of basements throughout the county right now,” said Eisentrager. “With this much rain with back-to-back storms, there’s only so much the ground can take when it’s already saturated. We’re doing the best we can right now, but it’s going to take time to get back to where we need to be.”

Kala Thury and her husband Elias were driving back to Eagle Grove after attending the Karl King Band concert in Fort Dodge. Thury said the downpour began about 9:40 p.m. when they got to Iowa Highway 17 from Hamilton County Road D18.

“We had to be careful about which roads to take because certain ones were flooded,” said Thury. “Cars were getting stuck at some intersections and a lot of the storm drains were clogged with tree debris from the hail the night before and that night.”

Thury said they made it to their home on the east side by the Wright County Fairgrounds only to find water in their basement, much like most residents of Wright County.

“Until 2 to 3 a.m. in the morning, you could see people throughout town throwing stuff from their basements out onto their lawns and running sump pump hoses out through the yard and into the streets,” said Thury. “For a brief moment we lost power, but thankfully it was only for a moment. I don’t know what would have happened if the town had lost power.”

Thury said their sump pump was running throughout the night and she estimated that they had approximately 7 inches of water in their basement. She said some of her neighbors had “multiple feet of water” and some had sewage back up into their basements.

As residents begin to clean up from both weekend storms, dumpsters have been made available to residents.

The City of Clarion has placed dumpsters for flood debris only at the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows High School parking lot in the corner of Willow Drive and 11th Street Northeast. T&S Sanitation and The Trashman are also providing dumpsters for residents.

The City of Goldfield has placed a roll-off dumpster for flood debris at its city hall.