Iowa town Pacific Junction faces uncertain future in wake of 2019 flooding

PACIFIC JUNCTION — Census data shows that in the three years since devastating 2019 floods submerged Pacific Junction in southwest Iowa, the town's population has shrunk from 475 to less than 100. Now the question is whether it will remain a town.

Pacific Junction Mayor Andy Young recently told Omaha, Nebraska, television station KETV he's hopeful the town will see families coming back.

"I hope to see that we thrive and move on," he said. "I don't think we'll ever be as big as what we were before. But even if we get, you know, over half of where we were, that's pretty good accomplishment."

Dozens of empty lots around the town are the result of federal buyouts, which stipulate a new home cannot be built on the property once the old one comes down.

Heavy rains and snowmelt in March 2019 saw 200 miles of levees either breached or overtopped in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas and saw hundreds of homes and businesses flooded. Pacific Junction was among the communities hardest hit and had to be evacuated.

The town is working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency, which serves four counties in Nebraska and Pottawattamie and Mills counties in Iowa along the Missouri River, on the buyout program. Young said he hopes the buyout phase will be completed by this spring.

Ninety-two Pacific Junction homes will likely come down as part of federal buyouts, according to MAPA. The agency said there are still about 34 homes that have yet to be acquired.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa town Pacific Junction faces uncertain future in wake of 2019 flooding