Gazette Daily News Briefing, June 2
This Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Friday, June 2.
There's another chance for rain Friday, so we'll see if that happens this time. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 91 degrees. There will be a 40 percent chance of precipitation, mainly after 1 p.m.
On Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of around 67 degrees.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, a structural engineer report issued just days before a Davenport apartment building partially collapsed indicated a wall of the century-old structure was in imminent risk of crumbling, yet officials did not order residents to leave and said Thursday they relied on the engineer's assurances that the building remained safe.
Three residents of the six-story building still were unaccounted for, and there are no immediate plans to demolish what remains of the extremely unstable structure, according to local officials.
Crews were using drones to scan the building and consulting with experts about how to safely bring down the structure while being respectful of bodies that could be buried in a debris pile, Mayor Mike Matson said.
Earlier this week, authorities said five people were missing, but Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel said Thursday that two of them have since been found safe. One moved out of the building a month ago and was found in Texas, and the other was found locally.
The Iowa City Fire Department responded to a backhoe crash, house fire and downed power line at the corner of Fairchild and Linn streets Wednesday, according to a news release from the department.
First responders were called at 1:14 p.m. Wednesday in response to the back- hoe crash. The backhoe was on Fairchild Street, which is closed, as part of a street reconstruction project.
The call was quickly upgraded to a fire response as the house at 230 Fairchild St. caught fire. When firefighters arrived, at 1:24 p.m., they found smoke coming from all sides of the house and a power pole with a transformer on the ground near the front yard of the home. One person was trapped in the backhoe, with power lines draped over it, the release stated.
The fire was located in the attic and brought under control by 2:05 p.m. and extinguished by 2:41 p.m.
A city spokesperson said the backhoe crash was part of a series of events leading to the fire, but the incident remains under investigation.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a series of bills into law on Thursday.
This included an $8.5 billion budget that will spend more to help Iowa families pay for private school expenses, increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for Iowa nursing homes and raise the pay of private attorneys who represent indigent defendants.
Also signed was a bill requiring in-person participation in Iowa caucuses, a controversial bill restricting the powers of the Iowa auditor, and a bill requiring low income Iowans to meet more requirements and to provide more verification before receiving food assistance, healthcare, and child aid.
