Treading Water Letter

If you have seen the news lately, you have probably seen that Cedar Rapids is having major flooding. Since we are about one hundred feet above the normal river level, we are high and dry. Here are some interesting facts:

- see pictures at http://www.gazetteonline.com/

- 483 square blocks under water

- 24,000 people have been evacuated, out of a population of 201,000.

- the record flood level has been at 20 feet, recorded in 1929 and 1859. That is before the Civil War. We hit a crest of 32 feet yesterday. 1993 had a stage of 19 feet. The normal flood level is 12 feet.

- we are not forecast to return to 20 feet (the old record) until next Wednesday. It could take a couple of weeks to return to normal level of <12 feet.

- see http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=dvn&gage=cidi4&view=1,1,1,1,1,1

- when we were at 24 feet, the amount of water flowing down the Cedar River was equal to the water flowing down the Mississippi at moderate flood stage at the Quad Cities. We are now 8 feet higher.

- Cedar Rapids is down to ONE water well, located at one of the lowest spots in town. Last night 1,200 people helped sandbag it. They said we will probably go to a "boil" order by Sunday.

- We have lost two power stations. We get random power outages. All power in the central business district has been off for two days. Most will be without power for at least a week. Even though the entire city of Palo has been evacuated, the Palo nuclear plant is still on-line, and looked to remain that way.

- Thursday, we helped some friends move everything out of their basement to the second floor. Indian Creek came up about four feet while we were there. We all had to leave when it reached the street (the creek is in a park across the street from them.) Alex said they ended up with some water in the basement.

- Only one of 7 auto bridges across the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids is open. One of the 3 railroad bridges has collapsed, taking 20 railcars with it. They had been parked there to keep the bridge from floating away.

- Thursday night Alex helped with sandbags at Mercy Hospital. They were keeping the Ambulance Entrance open long enough to evacuate the hospital, which they finished this morning as water entered the basement equipment areas. Mercy is a large hospital that is 4-5 blocks outside the 500 year flood plain.

- I went to a Red Cross / FEMA briefing last night. I may go for more training today. More on this later.

- Alyssa is at YMCA Camp Wapsi. The Wapsi River is also at full flood, but the camp is on very high ground. We will pick her up this morning, but may have to be creative in picking a route to get there. We will probably bring several stranded kids home.

- Interstates 80 and 380 are closing for a few days.

We live in interesting times.