Midwest Flooding

[jking]

Are there any members being affected by the flooding in the midwest? Besides Iowa, I know parts of Wisconsin have been affected.

The reservoir north of Des Moines started to go over the emergency spillway last night. They had some video of the water flow just downstream from the dam on the news this morning - pretty amazing. The amount of water coming down the river will be twice the maximum amount of flow from the dam. Depending on how much rainfall we get over the next few days, this could be worse than the floods in 1993.

Where I am, we are actually in pretty good shape, comparatively. The people living in other parts of the state have it much worse right now.

[BobSch]

We haven't been getting much around here (That's probably going to change tonight.)

My wife works for Qwest Communications in downtown Minneapolis and yesterday they took her whole office up to White Bear Lake to man (person?) operator positions because the company had to evacuate their building in Waterloo, IA due to flooding.

[germdoc]

We got about 5"--not too bad in La Crosse itself but surrounding communities got hammered, es. Gays Mills--2 major floods in less than 1 year. Lots of problems with crops around here as well.

And of course we won't be having Tommy Bartlett's waterskiing show this summer...http://www.wiscnews.com/wde/news/290786

[dkerfoot]

We had 6 people killed in our immediate area. The bizarre thing is that it wasn't because of swollen rivers or storm surge or the usual causes. We had over 5 inches of water in about 2 hours time and it just plain overwhelmed the earth's ability to absorb it.

In one case, the water undercut a fairly busy road that travels the coast of Lake Michigan. Being along the lake, it was actually on top of sand dune, with a couple of feet of topsoil. Two people in a car dropped into a 20 foot chasm and were carried away.

This is not normally a flood area, so it was just bizarre to hear descriptions on the local news of people finding their cars filling with water to their waists and having to be pulled out of the windows.

Not to trivialize the loss of life, but I was very pleased to find that the basement waterproofing I undertook last summer before installing bamboo flooring in my basement passed the test. After that, I can feel pretty confident I won't have any leakage problems.

[germdoc]

And it's raining cats and dogs this morning...

[LinuxRandal]

I will have to say, not yet. Both my bosses and their brother, that is down here, got the call on Monday, about their mom's house. (Waverly Iowa) Two of the family was peeing into the water off the porch, to "chase the geese off the sidewalk/water". So everything but three pieced of furniture is upstairs. Now that won't help if the house gets washed downstream like they are just over the border. But considering the house was once completely lost due to fire, they have been through tragedy before and were laughing saying that those people who needed houses in New Orleans, are waiting on the banks, picking out the colors of the houses floating downriver to them. (not much they can do other then laugh)

Down here, we are waiting to see what we need to/can do, when they are ready.kl

[lrogers]

A lot of my wife's family is in Johnson county, Iowa. Her sister sent us pictures yesterday, it's unreal. So far, they are still okay, but..........

[jking]

Wow, that part of the state has been hit hard. My brother-in-law is in Iowa City, but, so far is dry. They started voluntary evacuations in the areas around downtown Des Moines yesterday.

[Garasaki]

I live 12 miles from cedar rapids and 20 from iowa city. I work in Iowa City. My communite increased from 25 minutes to 6 and a half hours 2 days ago.

I grew up in CR, and the level of the river is absolutely breathtaking.

I have no idea when I can start working again - no idea how to get there!

Personally my house is very dry. But just because your house is dry, I still am tremendously impacted. BUt thats life...and I am MUCH better off then a lot of people around here.

Go to www.kcrg.com for some pictures and vids.

Stuff is nuts.

[OpaDC]

I will have to say, not yet. Both my bosses and their brother, that is down here, got the call on Monday, about their mom's house. (Waverly Iowa) Two of the family was peeing into the water off the porch, to "chase the geese off the sidewalk/water". So everything but three pieced of furniture is upstairs. Now that won't help if the house gets washed downstream like they are just over the border. But considering the house was once completely lost due to fire, they have been through tragedy before and were laughing saying that those people who needed houses in New Orleans, are waiting on the banks, picking out the colors of the houses floating downriver to them. (not much they can do other then laugh)

Down here, we are waiting to see what we need to/can do, when they are ready.kl

Not making light of things, as I have been through five hurricanes, two of them major, so I can relate. But when I saw this picture I remembered this line from the forum. Guess they going to have to wait longer.

I feel for the people affected. Good Luck!

[LinuxRandal]

Not making light of things, as I have been through five hurricanes, two of them major, so I can relate. But when I saw this picture I remembered this line from the forum. Guess they going to have to wait longer.

I feel for the people affected. Good Luck!

That is Cedar Rapids!
That is the train bridge and those are house boats on the Cedar river (hope I have the river's name correct). Friday there was one house, Saturday (saw video via the net) about 30 of them were against it (not all of them yet) and they were worried that it would remove the bridge, then flow into the 635 Bridge (pretty much the only one left).

Heard from their mom yesterday. Her basement was about 5 feet full, and they said it was in the 500 year flood stage (she had never had water before). Her daughter that she has been staying with, is now getting close to water herself. What is the worst is the wait. We know some of what she will need (furnace, water heater, a/c, electrical panel), but until the water stops, we don't know, what, if anything else.

We also wonder how long until the water heads this way, and MO starts having problems.