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Surveillance video captures moment levee is breached by Mississippi River

Posted at 4:05 PM, May 03, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-03 16:05:37-04

DAVENPORT, Iowa (WQAD) — Surveillance video captured at a business shows the moment the Davenport levee was breached.

Watch the upper left corner of the screen, at about 10 seconds in, water starts pouring over the barrier and a person starts running north of the river.

The levee was breached shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30. Water poured onto 2nd Street and Pershing Street.

The video was posted on YouTube by newly opened restaurant Roam. At about 30 seconds in, you can see a group of employees running out of the building. One employee said they had been inside preparing the space in case flood water came in.

The restaurant left the following message on their Facebook page Friday.

“We recently were able to sort through the damage at Roam and found we were able to salvage our surveillance footage. Upon looking through the footage the team was able to find the exact moment the levee was breached. We hope this video gives you some insight into how devastating and quick this event happened. From the moment the wall went it took less than 6 minutes for Roam to become completely engulfed.”

The business has organized a GoFund Me account to help provide flood relief for their employees.