Ceder Rapids, Iowa City and Coralville
We spent several weeks in Iowa City, working the Draft Gore project, based at the Corps of Engineers campgrounds at the Coralville Reservoir. I've been looking over pictures, from the Iowa City and Ceder Rapids papers where the flooding is being covered, and from our archives. This picture shows the Iowa River starting at the release gate, usually lined with fishermen. Wealthier Anglos with rods and reels on the near side, poorer non-Anglos with a mix of rods and can reels on the far side. Jonah loved the walk from one camp on the far bank up to the fishing spots at the flood gate, where there was always pebbles and stones to toss down into the water and carp and down the quiet banks (out of sight on the right) to the ruins of an older railroad bridge across the Iowa.
Apropos of nothing, it was on one of those walks with Jonah that I saw a pileated woodpecker. It was from Iowans camping with us we learned that Ethanol really isn't an issue that affects many people, and that Iowa is more complex than just corn. We met people, documented and not, who work at meat packing plants, the Hispanic demographic of Iowa, with its mercados and lavanderias. And while we were waiting for parts to catch up with us, we went to the Coralville strip, now under 5' of water, to get network access.
When we first got to Iowa City we were immediately struck by the tornado damage -- the St. Patrick's Day of 2006 tornado -- the buildings without roofs and the wreck of one of the large greek houses all close to campus.
The deli where MB met John Edwards in Rapid City (for the 3rd time) is underwater, as is the muni power plant, most of the water system.
The water is now over a foot deep, and projected to get three feet higher, at the Coralville Reservoir spillway, and of course the camp area we used facing the lake is well below the spillway. The camp area we used in the photo (far bank, extreme right) has been closed for a week as the Corps has moved the release from 2,000 cfs (photo level) up to 20,000 cfs (somewhat higher, neh?) as the water level approached, and today passed, the "500 year" flood stage, last set in 1993.
The river-side portion of the university campus in Iowa City is sandbagged, there's been evacuations, and now they can only wait for the crest to pass.
Comments
Looks like the "500 year" flood is/is going to be worse than the
flood of 1993. I'd hate to be a farmer in one of those counties
which is underwater. My heart and prayers go out to all residents
and farming folks whose farms and/or homes and businesses are under
water. We, too, had a smaller flood here in the Chattanooga, TN area, in 2003, which inundated parks, businesses, and homes. These things
happen and it is hard to prepare for disasters such like these. China
is also, as you may know, having major floods, as is Myanmar, as we
speak and those countries have not yet recovered from them yet. This is a Spring of floods and bad weather throughout the world. It's almost biblical in its proportions. I hope summer is much better. As I said, we can only hope and pray that rough times ease up.
and pray.
Posted by: Steve Plonk | June 17, 2008 04:30 PM