15 years after major flood, Mason City’s mayor says city continues to take a proactive approach

MASON CITY — Thursday marks 15 years since the flooding of 2008 that severely impacted Mason City. Nearly six inches of rain fell over a two-day period, causing the Winnebago River to rise to a record 18-and-a-half feet. The city’s water treatment plant was impacted with the community being without water for several days, and 163 homes were lost due to the flooding.

Mayor Bill Schickel says the city is always continuing its efforts to deal with future flooding events.  “When you see this working going on, the utility trucks going around and working on our sewer system, even the work at the water reclamation facility there in terms of capacity to prevent sewer back-up in basements, all that infrastructure worth millions and millions of dollars that we’ve invested in the last 15 years are designed to help our infrastructure withstand both the need for demand right now and the need to withstand natural disasters.”

Schickel says nature is a powerful thing, and while the city can only do so much, city government needs to continue to be proactive in keeping on top of things.   “It’s important for us to be prudent and invest in our infrastructure this way, including flood mitigation measures that we’ve taken all over town. Like I say, nature is a powerful thing, but we can do our best to try to mitigate that kind of damage, and when a natural disaster occurs to get busy and work on the restoration and cleanup as quickly as possible.”

Schickel made his comments on the “Ask the Mayor” program on AM-1300 KGLO earlier today. Listen back to the program by heading to the audio player below