Third flooding and cleanup taking toll on merchants

PERCIVAL, Iowa (AP) – A third flooding and cleanup are taking a toll on people who operate some small businesses along Iowa Highway 2 in southwestern Iowa.

They heavily rely on Interstate 29 traffic and on travelers being able to make across a Missouri Bridge over to Nebraska.

But the Iowa roadways leading to their mercantile community were covered with water and the businesses were inundated in mid-March after levees gave way.

They were flooded again in late May, after heavy rains and the upstream water releases by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Most of the businesses had been operating when floods occurred 2011.