Water and ‘Bridge Closed’ signs is what one would have seen right before getting to the pontoon bridge near Estherwood on Highway 91 this Saturday. But it’s not the first time the water’s risen and flooded nearby areas.

Connie Kraut lives near the pontoon bridge, she says she’s seen it flood every two or three years; sometimes with the water getting so high it covers her yard.

Once the water began rising on Saturday, the DOTD decided to close the pontoon bridge. 

Hannah Hart, who lives nearby, tells News 10 having the water block that bridge brings a big inconvenience, “That’s our only outlet to get to Iota or the interstate. Rather, we have to go through
Crowley or through Jennings. The worst is when you leave Crowley and get off the interstate and you hit the bridge and it’s closed, you gotta go back around.”

She adds it’s not just the river that floods in that area; the rain water fills their streets and yards do too.

“Just when it rains a little bit it gets bad over here. We’ll walk outside and the water will almost be to our knees sometimes,” says Hart.

She believes, however, the flooding from rain water has a solution, “I think they should clean out the ditches so people aren’t getting their yards ruined, the mud sticking everywhere.”

But as far as the river goes? Kraut doesn’t think that one has an immediate solution, “I can’t hope that it won’t flood like that anymore cause Mother Nature, you know. But I don’t think there’s any way they can prevent it right now.”

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