FORT DODGE, Iowa — Just over two weeks ago, the intersection of 13th Street and Central Avenue in Fort Dodge was submerged under several inches of water.
Business owners say it's not the first time flooding has happened.
"Since we have moved here in 2016, after we remodeled the building, it has flooded into our building three times," said Katie Underberg, co-owner of Guthrie and Associates Real Estate.
On May 30, Fort Dodge received more than three inches of rain in less than six hours, prompting a flash flood warning.
"A three inch rain storm over three hours is like a 10-year storm," said Chad Schaeffer, chief development officer for the city of Fort Dodge.
That means there's a 10% chance of it happening in a given year, but the odds have been much higher than that recently.
"With the wetter weather patterns that we've been having, those types of storms are happening much more frequently," Schaeffer said.
Outdated storm water drainage systems have not been able to keep up, meaning an upgrade is long overdue.
"We identified a lot of different areas where we needed to do storm water work," Schaeffer said.
The city has spent at least $20 million on updating the system already.
"The Phase Two project isn't ready to go yet and didn't have the funding," Schaeffer said. "Unfortunately, we have issues like we have here at Central and 13th."
Phase Two construction is set to begin next spring, but it can't begin soon enough for Underberg.
"It's completely unnerving as a property owner and a business owner to watch it just flood like that multiple times," Underberg said.
A few years back, the Fort Dodge City Council allocated $45 million for sewer storm water drainage to help stop basement backups. Since those improvements, no backups have occurred.