Braley, who was also on hand at the time of the breach, toured the dam with Dave Fink, dam operations supervisor for the Lake Delhi Recreation Association. Also on hand were District 16 state Sen. Tom Hancock, District 31 Rep. Ray Zirkelbach and Delaware County officials, Supervisor Jeff Madlom and Engineer Anthony Bardgett.
Complicating the emotional toll in the wake of the disaster is the private nature of the lake and dam, which could make government assistance more arduous. "We have to make sure we're punching the right buttons … we're going to have to apply some muscle to get some exceptions to those rules," Braley stated.
Hancock told Braley he had been working the phones, including calling Gov. Chet Culver's office, since around 6 a.m., when he received a call from Jim Willey, president of the Lake Delhi Recreational Association, who alerted Hancock that rising waters in the Lake Delhi area had reached threatening levels.
Braley acknowledged the frustration of all involved, saying, "We know from doing this in '08 that the thing in shortest supply is patience, which is a problem in Iowa because we're so self-reliant." He noted that the national media coverage on all of the area flooding over the weekend has "helped us get Washington's attention."
After touring the dam, Bardgett said Delaware County is in "very, very initial talks," regarding government relief flood victims may be able to procure.
Madlom emphasized that putting the pieces back together will take time, but the primary goal will be to "start with the worst problems first."
Those "worst" problems include power and water. Fink said the first goal is to "get basic utilities back to the people who need them" and to "safen things up."
Roger Mohn, project engineer on the dam, emphasized that the dam itself appeared to be structurally sound, on initial inspection. "It's a darn good thing we had that rock in there," he said, alluding to rip rap at the base of the approach to the east side of the dam, which remained intact. Rip rap was installed after the 2008 flooding in the Lake Delhi area after the association commissioned an assessment of the dam, which revealed the original rip rap had lost some structural integrity.