2008 Flooding in Iowa

Finally I am able to get back in the office and establish some sense of normalcy. For those of you who were wondering what was going on, here's the scoop. Pretty much the entire state of Iowa has had massive flooding. In fact, 83 (at last count), of the 99 counties in Iowa have been deemed disaster areas. I didn't think I had anything to worry about. Heck, I didn't even think we were in the flood plain. However, the levee up the street failed and started dumping water into our street and the surrounding neighborhoods.

I need to say that we were lucky! The poor families in the neighborhoods behind us didn't fare as well. There has been some unprecedented loss of property. Our surrounding area was the first hit followed by complete devastation in Cedar Rapids. Tens of thousands of people are now homeless and the last I heard, CR alone was expected to hit the $800 million mark in damage.

Here are some pictures of our building.







Here are some pictures from the town of Waverly, Iowa, also one of the first to be devastated by the floods.





Iowa really has been getting hammered this year. From devastating ice storms and killer tornadoes to floods. I think the only thing we are missing this year is famine and plague. Even though we are currently occupied with flood waters and flood clean up, we can NOT forget the people of Parkersburg, Dunkerton and other areas devastated by the F5 tornado. Also we can't forget the Tornado that hit the Boy Scout camp killing 4 and injuring 50. Granted, Iowa doesn't have a monopoly on suffering, but this is the worst series of disasters to hit the tall corn state since the mid 1800's.

The one thing I take away from all of this pride. I am very proud of the people. When volunteers were needed, people came. When neighbors suffered loss, people helped. When families lost their home, others opened theirs.

In a local town hall meeting a director from FEMA said that there was a difference between this disaster and New Orleans. It seem that in New Orleans some people sat on their front porch with their hand out and bitched. The people here, dropped what they were doing to volunteer, help their family, friends or neighbors and gave what they could to help those in need. The volunteers and their sandbagging efforts are actually what saved the downtown area of Cedar Falls. Here are some pictures of Cedar Falls near downtown.





And finally, this is one of the most amazing pictures from the Cedar Rapids area. This picture was taken before the bridge collapsed. Just look at the houses piled up against that bridge.



Even though the clean-up is going to take a while and it's going to be quite some time before businesses and residents are able to resume a normal life, I want to say thank you to all the people who volunteered and served. I have always been proud to say that I am from Iowa and now it means a little bit more for me.

Welcome to a new week.

UPDATE: Here are some additional pictures a friend emailed me.