Flooding

[Kelemvor]

I'm up in WI and we've got tons of problems here too. I'm sure most people have seen the footage of the house just washing away into the river at Lake Delton. BY me the freeway is closed in certain directions and other things too.

But today we finally had no rain so maybe things will start to go down...

 

[RU482]

1st dead body in a home discovered a couple of hours ago on Cedar Rapids SW side

They also shut down I-380 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City...I can't get to work for at least the next week.

I also saw footage earlier showing at least 15 houseboats logjammed up against a railroad bridge upstream a few hundred yards from the interstate bridge...if the railroad bridge gives way, things are going to get very interesting. I bet all of this will accelerate the HWY 100 extension.

 

[vi edit]

These pictures today are just heartbreaking.

http://www.press-citizen.com/a...e=1001&Params=Itemnr=1

The entire strip in coralville is about roof deep in water. Having lived there for years I'm having troubles even picturing how this can happen. The amount of water that is covering the area is just beyond belief.

I talked to my friend that lives in North Liberty. He does water sampling (rivers and lakes)for the university and he's just speechless. He's been sandbagging since Tuesday and can hardly feel his hands today. His wife(who's 5 months pregnant with twins) flies back into Cedar Rapids today and he's not even sure how he can get up there to get her.

 

[ViRGE]

but like all areas we have our share of natural disasters, it just happens that they are not as well publicized.

I was chatting with someone else about this earlier today, we basically came to the conclusion that the Cedar Rapids area is too small. 120k people in the city, 240k people in the metro area; it's by no means just a few people being affected but it's also not very big. Even the area where I came from is over 300k people in the metro area, and if it wasn't the state capitol no one would notice. The flooding will definitely get some press coverage, but compared to events that wipe out whole metropolises such as hurricanes and earthquakes, it's not that big.

It won't change the fact that people are suffering though.

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

but like all areas we have our share of natural disasters, it just happens that they are not as well publicized.

I was chatting with someone else about this earlier today, we basically came to the conclusion that the Cedar Rapids area is too small. 120k people in the city, 240k people in the metro area; it's by no means just a few people being affected but it's also not very big. Even the area where I came from is over 300k people in the metro area, and if it wasn't the state capitol no one would notice. The flooding will definitely get some press coverage, but compared to events that wipe out whole metropolises such as hurricanes and earthquakes, it's not that big.

It won't change the fact that people are suffering though.

That and there is no one to politically blame for our disaster

 

[Twinpeaksr]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

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.

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

It was 4.9", miss typed.

I have been traveling through western Iowa, southern MN and WI, and have seen a lot more damage. We nearly had tornadoes in Ames (6/11) there was on that wiped through a Scout Camp north of us, and when we drove through WI, we saw a whole town under water, it was not near a river. The WI river is also quite a bit wider than it was.

Cedar Rapids got it the worst. Hope Iowa City will be in better shape.

My parent got over 5" in QC a few days ago, the drainage ditch behind their house grew to over 6ft deep and 15ft wide, generally is never over a few inches.

 

[Twinpeaksr]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

but like all areas we have our share of natural disasters, it just happens that they are not as well publicized.

I was chatting with someone else about this earlier today, we basically came to the conclusion that the Cedar Rapids area is too small. 120k people in the city, 240k people in the metro area; it's by no means just a few people being affected but it's also not very big. Even the area where I came from is over 300k people in the metro area, and if it wasn't the state capitol no one would notice. The flooding will definitely get some press coverage, but compared to events that wipe out whole metropolises such as hurricanes and earthquakes, it's not that big.

It won't change the fact that people are suffering though.

Sad but true, no news sells like big bad news...we just aren't big enough.

So be it, probably better that there is not a lot of press out here seeing if they can get devastated people to react so they can make money.

End Rant...For now.

Looks like Cedar Falls managed to excape with minimal damage, I think the Focus is now CR and south, take all the Water from W'loo and CF and add in all the rain made of one hell of a mess.

 

[vi edit]

I think the worse is yet to come as people start finding out that their homes and property aren't covered by insurance. I bet 1 in 20 people have flood insurance since nothing like this has even been thought possible. Many people outside the 500 year flood mark still got hit and they likely never even thought that flood insurance was available.

CR is looking at 3/4 of a billion alone. Add in Iowa City and you are easily over a billion in lost homes, cars, businesses, ect.

And that doesn't include any "soft" costs like lost production and time off from work, ect.

It's just hard to compare this to a hurricane because it just sort of snuck up quietly. A hurricane, tornado, or earthquake are fairly quick, high powered natural disasters that just level almost immediately.

This was just a silent assassin that just kept creeping along inching up by the hour. Nothing flashy. Nothing that makes headlines. Just 5 days later you find your house or business 7 feet deep in water.

 

[Twinpeaksr]

It's like a hurricane in the Midwest:
- High winds...Check (Waterloo Airport recorded 80MPH+ and the Twister that wiped out New Hartford was clocked at almost 200MPH)
- Flooding...Check

Pretty similar, just the means are different and they are staggered. Not to be little the strength of a hurricane, but may people don't understand the strength of Flooding and Tornadoes. Especially Flooding sounds so minor...until you see it in action.

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: vi edit
I think the worse is yet to come as people start finding out that their homes and property aren't covered by insurance. I bet 1 in 20 people have flood insurance since nothing like this has even been thought possible. Many people outside the 500 year flood mark still got hit and they likely never even thought that flood insurance was available.

CR is looking at 3/4 of a billion alone. Add in Iowa City and you are easily over a billion in lost homes, cars, businesses, ect.

And that doesn't include any "soft" costs like lost production and time off from work, ect.

It's just hard to compare this to a hurricane because it just sort of snuck up quietly. A hurricane, tornado, or earthquake are fairly quick, high powered natural disasters that just level almost immediately.

This was just a silent assassin that just kept creeping along inching up by the hour. Nothing flashy. Nothing that makes headlines. Just 5 days later you find your house or business 7 feet deep in water.

I guarantee that just the damage to the university of iowa will top 1 million quite easily. Just off the top of my head, I'm counting 24 university buildings that are filling with water right now. I left town Saturday morning and am at my parents house in SE Missouri now. Can't imagine what things will look like when the water recedes.

 

[ElFenix]

i just saw some pictures on CNN. why was there a freight train parked in cedar rapids? they knew the flooding was coming, right?

 

[Twinpeaksr]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i just saw some pictures on CNN. why was there a freight train parked in cedar rapids? they knew the flooding was coming, right?

The Theory is the added Weight of the cars would keep the bridge in place, a balance against the force of the water. Cedar Falls did this with Success, Cedar Rapids had too much water to make this effective. Waterloo lost the train bridge because they failed to do this. It works well as long as the whole bridge does not go under.