Authorities advising against travel across Cherokee County, IA

CHEROKEE, Iowa (KTIV) – Authorities in the Northwest Iowa county of Cherokee are saying the area may experience historic flooding this weekend. Because of this, Cherokee County Emergency Management is advising no travel if at all possible.

According to emergency management, they’ve gotten reports from long-time Cherokee County residents that they are seeing water levels they’ve never seen before.

As of Saturday afternoon, the only roads that can get drivers through Cherokee County are the bridge at 480th Street, L51 at Quimby and C66 at Washta.

Some of the closures reported as of 2 p.m. include these roads in the town of Cherokee:

• Highway 3 bypass
• Old 21 and 515th St.
• Intersection of Beech St./Reddington Ave.
• Intersection of Maple/Waterbeech
• Water st and East Main
• Roosevelt and East Maple, no eastbound traffic
• East elm and Reddington Ave.
• East locust and 1st, can’t go south
• 59 and Beech St., can’t go east
• Hwy 59 between Locust and Beech
• Locust and 2nd

These county roads have also been closed:

• L Ave and 430th St. closed off
• C16 through L51-M Ave.
• Barnes Road south of 480th St. closed
• middle road between 470th and C16
• 430th and L Ave.
• 470th and O Ave.

These are just some of the road closures, as the Cherokee County Roads Department says they can’t keep up with all the them. Authorities urge people to stay off the roads if at all possible and to remember if you see a flooded road, turn around.

Cherokee County is not the only one advising against travel. Lyn, Sioux O’Brien, Clay, Emmet and Dickinson Counties are also strongly discouraging travel Saturday.

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