CANTON, S.D. (KELO) — This pile of soggy debris in the Canton High School parking lot is slowly being hauled away to the landfill. This is the emergency drop-off for people impacted by the flood.

Most of this debris has come from people’s basements. It appears some homes along Cedar Street were among the hardest hit by the rising water. Michael Tucker and his coworkers are driving around Canton, helping people get rid of water-soaked debris from their homes.

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“We are cleaning up the town of Canton. We are one of a couple of parties that are doing it, and a shout-out to my boss for having us do this. And it’s just good to give back to the community. Yeah, Canton is looking a lot better than it was a few days ago, that’s for sure,” said Tucker.

Police Chief Troy Swenson says some people in his city are frustrated.

“They are tired from the cleanup, but they are rallying. A lot of volunteers have stepped up filling sandbags, helping with the clean up process so upward and onward,” said Swenson.

Excel Energy crews are keeping busy. About a mile out of Canton, they are shoring up power line poles impacted by the flooding. Just up the road, the pavement is still washed out, so the road remains closed. However, Highway 18, which heads to the Iowa border, is no longer covered by water.

Although things are looking better, Emergency Manager Harold Timmerman says they have a long way to go.

“Our cities are trying to recover as best they can from what’s happened with flooding and people’s basements and so forth, and townships and the county are trying to temporarily fix roads so they are passable even though we can’t bring them back to normal state for quite some time,” said Timmerman.

Timmerman says people are driving around barricades, and they’ve had to rescue several of them. He reminds people to be patient and be safe.

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