Dickinson County has opened two sandbag fill sites, one in Spirit Lake and one in Milford with a third opening later today in Lake Park.

The site in Spirit Lake is located at the secondary roads maintenance facility on the south side of 19th Street, just east of Keokuk Avenue (to the east of Fareway).

The site in Milford is located near the “hoop” building just east of the new maintenance garage at 2246 220th Street (about 1/2 mile east of the catholic church on 13th Street / County Road A34).

The Lake Park site will be located on the south side of the County maintenance facility at the corner of Avenue A East and East 7th Street.

Dickinson County is providing sand and sandbags ONLY. Persons going to the sites will need to bring shovels and will have to fill and haul their own sandbags. Persons using the fill sites should be aware that today (06/28) and tomorrow (06/29) look to be very warm with heat indices near 95 degrees on Thursday and around 100 degrees on Friday.  Please drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen, and take frequent breaks.

The Weather Service continues to forecast rain for Friday night through Saturday night with the heaviest forecast for Saturday afternoon. From the NWS: “The most critical time for the currently flooded basins looks to be Saturday afternoon and evening, when scattered thunderstorms with high rainfall rates are possible along a cold front.” Dickinson County Emergency Management encourages everyone to prepare for additional heavy rain, flash flooding and rises in lake and river levels over the weekend.

Should East and West Okoboji reach 6.5′ at the USGS sites, a full no-wake will go into effect for those lakes. For Big Spirit Lake, that level is 16.15′. Levels this morning are at 6.26′ and 15.68′ respectively.

Please see the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers “Sandbagging Techniques” by clicking HERE.