Flooding

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Twinpeaksr

Senior member
Aug 9, 2000
386
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I love the Midwest, would not live anywhere else (Been to most of the states), but like all areas we have our share of natural disasters, it just happens that they are not as well publicized.

2 Weeks ago we have over 30 tornado's including an F5 that nearly wiped 2 towns off the Map (including leveling houses of 2 people I worked with and damaging several other co-workers residences) as well as killing 7.

Sunday we have several more tornadoes as well as several inches of rain.

Yesterday we set a record of 4.9" of rain in one day.

Flooding started yesterday here, Flood stage is 12Ft, Currently at 21FT, Crest Next Sunday at 26FT. Most towns in the area are in similar situations, as well as most of the Eastern half of the state.

So for any one who is in the area of Iowa City, IA, Cedar Rapids, IA or Waterloo, IA (My hometown), or surrounding areas (apologies if I missed an area) and looking to lend a hand, there are tens of thousands of people in the area that would appreciate it.

I am fortunate that I do not have flooding at my house, but with 1-4" of rain predicted north of us tomorrow, I fear this will get worse here and affect even more people.

I think I will be heading off to help with whatever I can in the next few hours and would encourage anyone else to do the same if you are near or capable. This is the 100year flood here.

You don't hear a cry for help from the Midwest often, we are always looking to take care of things our selves, but I think we may need some help this time, looks to be a long week ahead.

Take Care to all.



PS - If you are looking for information KWWL and KCRG are good resources to see what is going on.
 
S

StarsFan4Life

Golden Member
May 28, 2008
1,199
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I am sure you meant 1.9 feet, not inches...but I gotcha.

Yeah, down here in Texas we have had much, but I did experience my FIRST tornado in my new home. Not fun at all.

You guys be safe up there.
 
T

Twinpeaksr

Senior member
Aug 9, 2000
386
0
76
Actually it was 1.9inches of rain, but that was just the one day record, we have had much more than that total.

Twisters are often under appreciated. They were finding debris over 100 miles away.
 
CADsortaGUY

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: Twinpeaksr
I love the Midwest, would not live anywhere else (Been to most of the states), but like all areas we have our share of natural disasters, it just happens that they are not as well publicized.

2 Weeks ago we have over 30 tornado's including an F5 that nearly wiped 2 towns off the Map (including leveling houses of 2 people I worked with and damaging several other co-workers residences) as well as killing 7.

Sunday we have several more tornadoes as well as several inches of rain.

Yesterday we set a record of 1.9" of rain in one day.

Flooding started yesterday here, Flood stage is 12Ft, Currently at 21FT, Crest Next Sunday at 26FT. Most towns in the area are in similar situations, as well as most of the Eastern half of the state.

So for any one who is in the area of Iowa City, IA, Cedar Rapids, IA or Waterloo, IA (My hometown), or surrounding areas (apologies if I missed an area) and looking to lend a hand, there are tens of thousands of people in the area that would appreciate it.

I am fortunate that I do not have flooding at my house, but with 1-4" of rain predicted north of us tomorrow, I fear this will get worse here and affect even more people.

I think I will be heading off to help with whatever I can in the next few hours and would encourage anyone else to do the same if you are near or capable. This is the 100year flood here.

You don't hear a cry for help from the Midwest often, we are always looking to take care of things our selves, but I think we may need some help this time, looks to be a long week ahead.

Take Care to all.



PS - If you are looking for information KWWL and KCRG are good resources to see what is going on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you guys got hit pretty hard with the rain and storms. Here in the DSM area we are about to be screwed too. They keep saying the levees are going to hold but I was just downtown DSM and if we get any good amount of rain tonight then I can't see how it won't top the levee in a few places. The record was 31'7" in the 1993 flood and now they are saying that the crest will be 32' in this flood. They did add some height and reinforce the levee since then but it's all untested. The upstream reservoir is putting out ~44K CFS(cubic feet per second) but is being filled from upstream at 57K CFS. Basically DSM and areas downstream are screwed...
 
vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
126
I've been following the Press Citizen for the flooding going on in Iowa City. We lived a few minutes off of Dubuque street and my drove it daily. Now it's covered knee deep in water.

The pictures of Coralville Res are pretty crazy.

The really weird part is that I live in IL now, between IA and IN and we really don't have any siginificant problems even though we've had a ton of rain. We've mostly escaped any flood problems.
 
Crusty

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
Please oh please send your rain down to Texas. 8/11 of the past days have been over 100F here in Austin. We've already broken the all time record for 'hottest summer' and it's not even summer yet! I want my rain back dammit.
 
CADsortaGUY

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: Crusty
Please oh please send your rain down to Texas. 8/11 of the past days have been over 100F here in Austin. We've already broken the all time record for 'hottest summer' and it's not even summer yet! I want my rain back dammit.
Click to expand...

If only I'd known...I'd have sent you the couple inches I had in the basement the other night due to the city storm sewer being overwhelmed in my area.... :p Might have a few more tonight if this storm hits hard enough.
 
BurnItDwn

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,276
1,783
126
We've had quite a bit of rain here in the NW burbs of Chicago, we also had a bunch of near misses with Tornadoes. Been a crazy spring. Also, WTF is up with 90+ degrees outside, it is not even July, arrrrgh! I think over the last weekend we had tornado warnings Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with some pretty lofty winds.

I've been hearing a lot about how bad the Wisconsin river is flooded every day since the weekend. Also been hearing a lot on the radio about Kankakee area in IL where tornado's ripped though.

Hopefully it calms down for at least a while!
 
A

angry hampster

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2007
4,232
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0
www.lexaphoto.com
I live in Iowa City uphill from the flooding. The Iowa River isn't supposed to crest in town until Tuesday -- we've had thousands of people sandbagging around the clock since last week, so hopefully parts of the lower UI campus won't get too screwed. The Coralville res is pretty much useless at this point if (when) we get more rain. Never in my life have I seen this much rain. We haven't had a dry day in over 2 weeks.

Cedar Rapids looks awful though. 80 and 380 are both flooded, I couldn't even get up there if I wanted to.
 
W

wwswimming

Banned
Jan 21, 2006
3,695
1
0
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
The weather has been crazy between the rain and the heat here in MI
Click to expand...

does tornado get Michigans ?

i like that version. let me try again.

does Michigan get tornadoes ?
 
G

Glayde

Senior member
Sep 30, 2004
554
0
71
I grew up in western michigan, and when I was younger we had a tornado go through our back yard. It knocked down a huge tree, and our tool shed ended up in our neighbor's yard. This was probably early 1980's. I regret I was too young and scared to watch it through the window before going downstairs!

That being said, the photos coming out of Iowa City are pretty mind blowing.
 
vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
126
Originally posted by: angry hampster
I live in Iowa City uphill from the flooding. The Iowa River isn't supposed to crest in town until Tuesday -- we've had thousands of people sandbagging around the clock since last week, so hopefully parts of the lower UI campus won't get too screwed. The Coralville res is pretty much useless at this point if (when) we get more rain. Never in my life have I seen this much rain. We haven't had a dry day in over 2 weeks.

Cedar Rapids looks awful though. 80 and 380 are both flooded, I couldn't even get up there if I wanted to.
Click to expand...

From I've been reading these are the worse floods that have ever been recorded in the area. They are even passing the 500 year flood plain marks.

I used to drive 380/965 daily to get from North Liberty to CR. Both of those are shut down now. The strip in Coralville is underwater. Dubuque street by Mayflower is gone. My wife and I were almost in tears last night looking at the news sites and the pictures and footages coming out of the area.

Even I80 is getting shut down in Johnson county.

It's an absolute disaster zone.

:(
 
GagHalfrunt

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,997
126
Originally posted by: Twinpeaksr
Actually it was 1.9inches of rain, but that was just the one day record, we have had much more than that total.
Click to expand...

1.9" of rain in a day a record?!?!?!???? That wouldn't be a record in the middle of a desert.

 
vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
126
If I didn't have a 4 month old at home, I would have been in Iowa City/CR helping sandbag the last few days and helping clean up next week.

A little more about Cedar Rapids:

The city's water supply is in drastically limited supply after power was cut to both water treatment plants. The plants, operating on generators, are allowing the city to pump at only 25 percent of capacity. The city is asking ? begging ? residents to limit water use to drinking only.

The Cedar is now supposed to reach a crest today of 32 feet ? 12 feet above the river's 20-foot record, and 10 feet above where, three days ago, the crest was supposed to be headed.

More than 3,200 homes and hundreds of businesses have been flooded. Thousands more have water in their basements, as rain continued to fall Thursday.

8,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The sanitary sewer lift station at Edgewood Road and Ellis Road NW failed, putting some homes to the north and west ? far from the flood ? in danger of basement sewage backups.

Electrical power was out to 14,850 customers in Linn County and 1,025 in Johnson County last night, including most of the downtown. Those without power now may be without power for some days, Alliant Energy has warned.

All the city's downtown bridges are closed, leaving only Interstate 380 to carry slow-moving, jampacked traffic. Later in the day, bridges over Highway 30 and Highway 13 closed. Interstate 80, one of the nation's major east-west routes, closed last night at the Tipton exit east of Iowa City.

In addition to City Hall, water is in the Linn County Courthouse and the Linn County Jail, both on May's Island, and the federal courthouse at First Avenue and First Street SE.

The city's two hospitals are operating on backup power and, for the short term, have canceled elective surgeries.

http://www.gazetteonline.com/a...EWS/33625348/1001/NEWS
 
R

rezinn

Platinum Member
Mar 30, 2004
2,418
0
0
We had 4.9 inches of rain here last saturday, the streets were flooding in places I've never seen flooded. Been on flood/tornado watch on and off for a while.
 
BudAshes

BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,968
3,291
146
We got the opposite problem here in coastal California. The rain decided not to show up this year and now everything is burning to the ground.
 
A

angry hampster

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2007
4,232
0
0
www.lexaphoto.com
Just got back not long ago from roaming around down by the river. The water is up MUCH higher than it was 24 hours ago. I drive buses on campus, and one of my normal routes was 4ft under water, and it was dry yesterday. Manholes are bubbling up in parking lots and sidewalks. The railroad bridge is popping and creaking according to the national guard. If that bridge collapses, it risks taking out the Iowa Ave. bridge about 100 yards downstream. Burlington St. bridge will close within 24 hours probably.

On with the photos:

Between the Journalism Building and the Main Library, the drain is overflowing and filling up the parking lot.
A U-van dodges me.

see?

Iowa Ave. is flooded..can't cross through the construction anyway.

So I'll take the high road and cross the river on the rail bridge.

I begin to walk across and get yelled at by guardsmen.

The old chapel in front of the IMU..this will be underwater soon. The wall won't hold much longer.

Construction in the river (now ruined) in front of the creaking rail bridge.

West side of the river, on top of a rail bridge looking down at Riverside Dr. and the art campus. I spent a lot of time here last semester.

A drain spews up through 3-4 feet of water behind the new (2006) art building. I waded through this.

This drain started bubbling up while I walked by. Very creepy.

...at the same time, the museum across the street had a fire alarm going off for probably an hour. Very eerie considering no one came to shut it off.

Riverside Dr., the theatre building (left) and art museum (right)

Burlington St. traffic headed west..jammed to a halt for miles. This bridge will likely shut down within 24-48 hours.

What happens when a power plant goes underwater? This one is about to. The water here was unbelievable. So violent.
 
A

angry hampster

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2007
4,232
0
0
www.lexaphoto.com
The university just announced a complete closure. I'm out of work for a while now. I'm leaving for australia in 2 weeks and was hoping to get one good last paycheck before I take off. I have to find a way to pack my shit up and head out ASAP now.
 
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