Seven minutes, that’s how fast the fire chief in Gibbon says it took for flood waters to take over. The waters were supposed to get into town Tuesday night but did not arrive until just after 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.
“It came on fast,” said Rick Brown the Gibbon fire chief. “I stayed at the fire hall all night doing monitoring and making sure I was around when it started flooding and by 4:07 a.m. we had a flooded town.”
Brown says early Wednesday morning into the afternoon they made three air boat rescues. At last measure the water had reached 16.6 feet which is over a foot and a half above flood stage. The water is expected to crest at 17 feet late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.
“This morning it was going up a foot an hour and the last time the guys checked it, it was just a couple inches an hour and I’m kind of hoping were plateauing out,” said Brown.