www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200806 -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 6/14/2008
Last Visited: 6/14/2008
"Everyone has to be ready to evacuate on short notice," said Mike Sullivan, spokesman for the county's Emergency Operations Center."But it's not an imminent danger."
Officials are developing an evacuation plan, likely to involve a fleet of buses bringing people to Iowa City (about 10miles north) or possibly heading to other communities south.
"We have to know where to put them first.We are working on that right now," Sullivan said.
While other towns are facing high water, he said, there are "no island situations anywhere else that we see in our forecasting models."Sullivan stressed, however, there has - as yet - been no call to empty the town.
...
The Coast Guardsmen, currently stationed at the county emergency operation center at the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, are working the Iowa National Guard on rescues and other efforts, said Mike Sullivan, county executive assistant.Called in by state emergency workers, they have been using swiftboats to check on sandbag levies in critical areas, particularly power substations in Iowa City, Coralville and Hills, he said.
"The only way to get to some of those places is by boat," Sullivan said.
No one has had to be rescued from floodwater by the Coast Guardsmen as of noon Saturday, he said.The Coast Guard personnel will be in the area until the crisis ends or they are ordered elsewhere, Sullivan said.