I.C. is drowning. For us, this particular natural disaster is not as to hand as the last one—we live quite high above it; nevertheless, it is overwhelming to realize that entire streets and neighborhoods and parks we have enjoyed are succumbing to the unrelenting river.
I saw you in that video, G! Showing off your altruistic nature, I see.
:)
by kl—Jun 8, 10:40 AM
I wasn’t going to point that out, K.
by greg—Jun 8, 12:01 PM
Floods are a bona fide pain in the ass. We were going through this same sort of crap last summer.
by JH—Jun 8, 02:37 PM
The last time this happened in IC was 1993. Laura was in high school at the time and has a good story about trying to ride her bike to Donutland but being thwarted by high water everywhere she went.
by greg—Jun 8, 02:50 PM
so, is that you driving the bulldozer or have you shaved your beard and died your curls blond?
by Jeremy—Jun 8, 03:12 PM
tornados, freezes, floods, IC must be a den of iniquity… you better get out Lot because I don’t think that there’s an Abraham pull you and yours out of the place.
by Jeremy—Jun 8, 03:14 PM
I haven’t driven heavy machinery since 2002; moreover, the beard still grows. Guess again!
by greg—Jun 8, 03:16 PM
well, i know in which minute and for which seconds you appear, but i don’t want to blow your hermity cover…
kl, no doubt, appreciates my silence on this matter, she wouldn’t want the thousands of girlz swooping down on IC to get some of that G! love and special sauce.
by Jeremy—Jun 8, 04:19 PM
The local paper (in a new, miniature size!) has photos up from today. It just gets worse and worse: the bridge I took the photo from up top will be closed tomorrow.
by greg—Jun 9, 08:43 PM
so, how white is ic?
by Jeremy—Jun 9, 10:00 PM
It’s pretty white. But also, whitey tends to live along the river.
Meanwhile, there are at least two trailer parks under threat of flooding (if not already flooded) downriver. The P-C hasn’t seen fit to send anyone there yet to cover the working-class folk.
by greg—Jun 9, 10:43 PM
The big building in the upper left that looks like it’s not quite flooded yet is the Parkview Evangelical Free Church. The really big building on the bottom right is this dorm. The riverbed is the brown expanse at the bottom left—it’s the same area the photo up top is of.
by greg—Jun 10, 10:08 PM
A comparison: these shots are of the same spot on the same bridge. The first was taken last Thursday; the second, yesterday.
by greg—Jun 11, 06:29 AM
It’s so funny to be having a virtual experience of this flood when I had an actual experience of the last one.
by Laura—Jun 11, 07:35 AM
On closer look, not quite the same spot on the bridge. I think mine is closer to the east side of the river.
by greg—Jun 11, 07:36 AM
14: I didn’t see you before! However did you sneak in?
by greg—Jun 11, 08:01 PM
Flooding in Cedar Rapids killed the Internet today. For now, though, we still have it at work.
by greg—Jun 12, 11:45 AM
Also in Cedar Rapids, a railroad bridge has collapsed:
by greg—Jun 12, 11:57 AM
This is all sort of horrifying.
by JH—Jun 13, 04:53 AM
Yeah. We hadn’t been downtown in a few days but were there yesterday, and the Iowa River (Cedar Rapids is just north of us, but is on the Cedar River) was flashing past with so much speed it was scary. The section of the river where we were, the river is far below the road because it was below a small dam setup for generating power. But the water was inches from the roadway. We’re about to head out of town today, but I feel guilty for doing it now, as if I’m abandoning solidarity with my city.
by greg—Jun 13, 05:36 AM
Things in Cedar Rapids are really, really bad now. Much of the city’s downtown is on the flood plain, and it didn’t help that they had at least 4 in of rain yesterday (storm after storm after storm hit them, all day). Iowa City is in slightly better shape because much of it is well above the river. Downtown, the university occupies much of the riverbed, so it is university buildings most at stake. Slightly downriver there are two mobile home parks, the flooding of which unfortunately our local paper sees unfit to cover. (Of course far downriver are other cities.) There are several neighborhoods (as Laura informed me, “Mosquito flats” and Idylwild where the Parkview church is) and the parasite city of Coralville that will absorb the worst of it. Already the Coralville strip—Hwy 6 that runs down the city’s length—is underwater. And all that is going to get much worse in the coming days.
by greg—Jun 13, 05:48 AM
I took some shots of IC this morning. About an hour after I got home, I heard that the water was already higher than this.
Iowa Independent has some video and photos from Cedar Rapids.
by greg—Jun 13, 10:27 AM