(Spencer)– Firefighters and police officers in Spencer who played critical roles in rescuing hundreds of people during the flood did so as they and their families were also being impacted. Fire Chief Jesse Coulson told the city council Monday about half of the department’s firefighters have been displaced…
“We have 30 members on our roster right now. 50 percent of our members have been impacted by this flood themselves. Some of them stayed and worked 36 hours straight to cover and support our resources throughout town. Some of them were trapped on that south side of town and just remained there through the night and through the next day until we could get resources to kind of switch them out. Some of them have one hundred percent devastation, some of them multi-family, some them are living up to 40 minutes away from here right now because they don’t have a home to go to.”
Police Chief Mark Warburton says some of his officers face a similar situation…
“They were rescuing their own families and they had to be rescued themselves. And then some of them came in to work and continued on with rescue efforts even after being rescued themselves. We had officers from the Iowa State Patrol, the DPS, Arnolds Park, Okoboji, Spirit Lake, Milford. Everybody has been down here to take some of the load off the Spencer Police Department at this time and those efforts are greatly appreciated.”
On another matter, Warburton says the Communications Center along with the Police Department, also flooded. He says restoration efforts continue at both facilities. The communications center has been operating out of a temporary facility provided by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Warburton says fortunately the equipment in the Communications Center wasn’t damaged and remains operational…
“Our hope is that we can get our dispatchers back in that communications center and restore entire communications to the county by early next week. So that’s going to be a this is everything goes right type of scenario, and I can tell you right now everything hasn’t gone right at this point, but we are making every attempt to do so.”
In the event that doesn’t work out, Warburton says plans are in place to bring in another temporary facility.
