Flood Forces 20,000 Cedar Rapids Residents To Flee

Today is a sunny day in Iowa City/Coralville, but it doesn't matter, because the waters continue to rise, with more bridges to close here. The levee has broken in Des Moines, with devestating effect, and Cedar Rapids continues to be inundated with water.

The top story on Yahoo News concerns Cedar Rapids, and at least 20,000 people who have been forced out of their homes:

Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 20,000 people from their homes, officials said Saturday.

Officials guess it will be four days before the Cedar River drops enough for workers to even begin pumping out water that has submerged more than 400 blocks, threatened the city's drinking supply and forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital.

"We're estimating at least a couple of weeks before the flood levels get down right around flood stage and below," said Dustin Hinrichs of the Linn County emergency operations center.

The Cedar River crested Friday night at nearly 32 feet, 12 feet higher than the old record set in 1929.

link to full story

LINK TO FRONT PAGE OF IOWA PRESS CITIZEN FLOOD COVERAGE

This next short post is for those who do not have access to the Iowa Press-Citizen, or those who have not checked it, for local coverage of the flood situation, as I post on several sites. Instead of doing a bunch of posts on the flooding, I have provided the link to the Front "page" of the online press-citizen and you can then read all the stories, see the photos, or use the links there for more in-depth information.



link to press citizen main news page on flooding

Midwest Copes With Floods, East With Heat

It is another soggy day in Iowa City, and most of the Midwest, as areas are declared disaster zones, and eight people are confirmed dead, from the weekend storms, and flooding. There is this story at Yahoo News, and at the bottom is a second link to a local Iowa Press-Citizen story concerning the area flooding that is expected this week:

Temperatures rose toward the triple digits along the East Coast on Monday as Midwesterners braced for more rain that could add to days of deadly floods.

Eight deaths were blamed on stormy weekend weather, most in the Midwest. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared an emergency for 29 counties and President Bush late Sunday declared a major disaster in 29 Indiana counties. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said nearly a third of his state's 99 counties need federal help.

Flooding was expected to be a continuing problem this week in the Midwest as rivers are swollen with the runoff from heavy weekend rainfall, topped by the 11 inches that fell Saturday in Indiana.

link to full midwest storms and eastern heat story

link to iowa city coralville flooding and related stories