Flood of 2008: Update Monday... early

Iowa City still lies in danger, while the flood levels continue to fall in Cedar Rapids. We have dropped out eight feet in the last couple days which means we are in good shape for an early drop below flood stage. It is still predicted around Friday, but we will see what is going on.

I am thoroughly amazed at everything going on at UrRelay to keep thinks operational here at Mt. Mercy College. We are expanding in to a second room in the building and our tech boys are working like monkeys od’ing on caffeine. But they are setting us up with one wild temporary call center... which will almost certainly be gone within a week or two when we move to a more secure temporary location. It has been a wild and crazy experience.

In other flood related news, Father’s Day is postponed this year, at least in my household, as we have left Hannah at Grandma’s house for another week while the flood subsides a little more. On the brightside the city has opened another water center, which means we can now use water every other day. So even numbered houses get to use water on even days, odd numbered houses on odd days. So, yes, I am looking forward to a shower in another 7 hours or so.

Enough for now. Thanks for all the prayers, well wishes, and the such from everyone.

Flood of '08: An Update as the Flooding Subsides

While south of us the cities of Iowa City and Coralville, the worst of it has past for Cedar Rapids. After the crest at noon yesterday the water levels have come down about eighteen inches. Now we have the slow wait until the water drops enough that repairs can begin.

According to the National Weather Service site, we still have five or six days before we even reach the Major Flood stage level. It will be over a week before we even get down to flood level.

We now have days of water conservation ahead of us. No showering, no washing dishes, no laundry. The stupidity of it all is that we have not shut down all the restaurants, laundromats, cleaners, and the like around the city. Hence the water levels continue to fall and we will soon be in the danger of a boil order because of it. I highly recommend any locals that are out and about stop to implore these people to shut down so as to conserve water. Having worked in any number of restaurants I know exactly how much water they use.

I will end with a few pictures that just illustrate the strangeness of it all. I will continue to check in sporadically with more information.

Flood of '08: Another day, still risin'

Sorry about the lack of updates overnight. The river continues to ride here in CR. It’s slowing now, but for quite awhile was rising at the rate of 2 inches an hour. We are fast approaching 32 feet which is at or near crest. One of the two hospitals, both of which are 6 to 7 blocks from the so-called 500 year flood plane (that is the plane that it rose to back in 1993) is now taking on water and closed. Mercy will be closed indefinitely now. The other hospital, St. Lukes, is at the top of a hill only about three blocks away, but it looks like it will survive.

I am about 8 blocks from that location, again uphill, but I have to say it is not without some trepidation. Our basement remains dry however, and that is a good sign that we will be all right for the long run.

I did just take a look National Weather Service site of our flood information and the depressing part is how slow the water will lower. It will take a full week for the water to just drop to the levels it was on Thursday night. And that is not even counting the fact that several levees were broken as well. But the current prediction is a full week just to lower down in to Major stage. That’s a week before most of the flooded areas can even be reentered.

I will continue to update as I can. My internet connection seems all right still and as long as I have it, I will keep posting. While 14,000 houses are without power in this county, I count myself lucky that we are still in such great shape.

Flood of '08: A Look at UrRelay

I’m back from my couple hours of sleep. After being up nearly 24 hours thanks to the issues yesterday and today and my job working the overnight yesterday evening, I just had to crash a few hours.

The water levels are still rising in downtown Cedar Rapids and it looks like they expect them to until some time early tomorrow morning. No one really knows for sure as the National Weather Service gauge in Cedar Rapids was wiped away in the middle of the night. However it looks like they were finally able to update it this afternoon on their website. Current river levels are at 29.32 feet in downtown Cedar Rapids. That's five feet over where they expected it to crest last night. The revised predictions look lik the crest isn’t coming until 10 or 11 am tomorrow either, at around 32 feet. That’s over ten past the current record from 1993.

So the situation is far from over.

In related news, I finally have seen a shot of my job downtown. UrRelay is located under a parking garage in downtown Cedar Rapids, or at least it was... This is a shot of the side of the parking garage with both a car and the ramp for reference points.

And here is a shot from a little further away just to give you some idea of the size of all this.

And finally some Youtube video of downtown circa 11 a.m. this morning. You can check it out by clicking on this link. Again thanks to Gazette Online for all these chats.

Flood of '08: One last picture before I go.

Here’s one last shot of downtown Cedar Rapids before I go. This is just a block or so away from where UrRelay normally works downtown. It looks like it will be awhile before we see the downtown office again.



Again thanks to Gazette Online for the pictures.