Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Mantra has served wastewater treatment plant well
Here comes a small fishing boat with a 9 horsepower motor with Dan Bieker and Rick Carter to rescue us. I was not thrilled at all about boarding this small boat and crossing the Nish during the peak of the flood." -- STEVE KENKEL

    HARLAN – There’s a photo in the July 16, 1993 edition of the Harlan News-Advertiser of then Assistant Harlan Wastewater Superintendent Steve Kenkel working to repair damage at the city’s water treatment plant after the community had been hit with a once-in-a-100-year flood.
    Long-time Harlan residents likely remember that week.
    President Bill Clinton declared Shelby County a disaster area and Harlan and Shelby County residents began to clean up the muddy mess left behind by raging flood waters over one weekend.  Damages from the historic flood topped $3 million county-wide to homes, businesses, municipalities, and cropland.
    Nearly 10 inches of rain soaked the areas north of Harlan.  The water had nowhere to go but down the West Nishnabotna River, which predictably overflowed its banks.  The flooding covered the eastern part of Harlan.  The Harlan Municipal Utilities, Westridge Mobile Home Park, Sta-Bilt Construction, Yellow Freight, the Shelby County Fairgrounds, and many other businesses and homes were under water.
    Then mayor Ben Post said, “The flood of 1993 will go down as the major flood of the century.”
    It’s certainly a time Kenkel will never forget.  Tasked with keeping the wastewater plant safe and functional during this historic flooding event, he spent much of the early hours closing up the buildings and killing power to the motors and panels before they flooded.  And then he spent much of the week in clean-up mode.

 
 

 

Harlan Newspapers

1114 7th Street
P.O. Box 721
Harlan, IA 51537-0721

(800) 909-6397
news2@harlanonline.com

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