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Pleasant Valley family starts clean-up after having more than four feet of water

“I’ll find mud two years from now from this.”
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PLEASANT VALLEY, Iowa-- Families living along the Mississippi River in Pleasant Valley are starting the clean-up process now that floodwaters have receded.

"I'll find mud two years from now from this," Rob Dennis jokes. "We gotta get the mud out and get everything bleached out so the mold doesn't start."

Rob, his wife Meredith and seven-year-old daughter Rooney were able to get back into their riverfront home late last week. Record floodwaters completely submerging the lower level of their home kept them out for two weeks. It had become too unsafe to boat in, which they'd already been doing for more than a month.

In his basement, Rob had put many belongings up on shelves. Even his best efforts weren't enough to fight back against the Mighty Mississippi.

"We over prepare and then things happen, and it turns out even all the extra we did wasn't good enough," he says. "We prepared for a foot and a half over where the flood was supposed to be originally. And it went two and a half feet... It got a lot of stuff that we weren't expecting."

Rob says countless keepsakes and belongings were ruined by dirty floodwaters.  One of the worst things lost was Rob's first Father's Day gift: Steeler bag boards.

"A set of bags boards that they had made for me, my wife and my daughter," he explains. "They're probably in St Louis now. if you see them, send them to P.V."

Weeks and months of work lie ahead for the Dennis family. Rob says he'll clean as much as he can, get the garbage in a dumpster and get a contractor out to repair ruined drywall. For now, they're able to stay at home upstairs instead of in a hotel.

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