The situation surrounding a train derailment in Chickasaw County has been downgraded from an emergency scene to an industrial worksite. Authorities said Tuesday that crews removed 4,900 gallons of aqueous ammonia from a damaged tank car. The ammonia does not pose a threat to public health. Four remaining tank cars of anhydrous ammonia are intact and being staged for their content’s removal. The New Hampton Fire Department has turned the location over to Canadian Pacific railway officials. The train derailed last weekend after significant flooding in the area closed roadways and flooded fields.
State officials are urging paddlers to stay off rivers and streams that have been swollen by recent heavy rainfall. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says some rivers are already dangerously high and water levels on more could rise fast with any new rain in the forecast. Even experienced paddlers should stay on dry land for now since swollen rivers are powerful with unpredictable current, along with wood and other debris coming downstream.
Drug charges have now been filed in connection with an Aug. 24 shooting during a thunderstorm that left one dead. Waterloo police arrested 25-year-old Cedrick Ondrell Smith of Cedar Falls Monday on a charge of possession of synthetic marijuana with intent to deliver. He was also detained on a probation violation. During investigation into the killing of 20-year-old Dayton Sanders, officers learned that Smith was at the scene of the shooting and had K2 synthetic marijuana he was attempting to sell at the time. Smith is also suspected of having a handgun. Police searched Smith’s home following the shooting and found K2. Two others have been arrested in connection with the shooting.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is urging farmers and agribusinesses to evaluate how much propane they’ll need to meet grain drying and home and livestock heating demands this fall and winter. He says propane users should anticipate, and suppliers should make plans, to accommodate increased propane demands this fall. In addition to supply chain concerns, a large amount of high-moisture corn must be dried before the grain can be stored in the bin to prevent quality issues.
Cedar Rapids school officials have outlined changes to current coronavirus protocols in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. Those include a more targeted contact tracing process, rather than a nonspecific whole-school notification on the occurrence of a positive case of COVID-19. Volunteers or parent visitors will no longer be allowed at elementary schools, the same procedure as during the 2020-2021 school year. The district is also banning full-school assemblies, though grade-level assemblies could still take place. The unavailability of vaccinations for elementary school-aged children and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases locally were given as the reasoning behind the changes.
Police in Des Moines are investigating the deaths of two people in separate incidents reported just hours apart. Police say officers were called around 8:15 p.m. Monday to a shooting on East 17th Street, where they found three shooting victims. Police say two of the victims were taken to a hospital with injuries, while the third was declared dead at the scene. About two hours earlier, police were called to an area along the Des Moines River by someone who reported an unresponsive man lying on the ground. Police say officers found the 43-year-old man dead and say his death was the result of a homicide.
An El Salvador national has been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for snatching a teenage girl from an eastern Iowa yard, dragging her into a house and groping her. 45-year-old Saul Santos Vasquez Martinez was sentenced last week after being convicted of second-degree kidnapping and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. The case made headlines in July 2019 when police say Vasquez grabbed the 16-year-old girl as she babysat a young child in a Cedar Falls yard and forced her into his house. The girl reported that Vasquez groped her and tried to remove her clothes before she managed to escape.
