Flooding In Iowa

[Dr. Shane]

Iowa's Cedar River Receding; Wide Damage Revealed

Receding water on Sunday revealed the widespread damage caused by a record flood crest, while other Iowa cities faced rivers that were still rising...

The flooding in Cedar Rapids swamped 1,300 city blocks, forced 24,000 people to flee their homes and nearly shut off the drinking water supply for the state's second-largest city.

But as the Cedar River retreated, the Iowa River was still rising at Iowa City, where water had already invaded parts of the University of Iowa campus and wasn't expected to crest until Monday or Tuesday.

"This is our version of Katrina," Johnson County Emergency Management spokesman Mike Sullivan said of the flooding in Iowa City. "This is the worst flooding we've ever seen — much worse than 1993," when much of the Midwest was hit by record flooding...

Two levees broke Saturday near the Mississippi River town of Keithsburg, Ill., flooding the town of 700 residents about 35 miles southwest of Moline. The National Weather Service said the Mississippi would crest Tuesday morning near Keithsburg at 25.1 feet. Flood stage in the area is 14 feet. Rising water threatening approaches also prompted Illinois officials to close a Mississippi River bridge at Quincy.

In the Iowa state capital of Des Moines, a levee breach Saturday morning inundated a neighborhood of more than 200 homes, a high school and about three dozen businesses. City crews and National Guard units struggled to build a temporary berm in a bid to stop the water, but by midmorning the water had cut through their mounds of dirt and sandbags.

I was born in Iowa, lived there during my early childhood and a year or so when I was in high school and graduated from a Minnesota university just north of the Iowa border. The areas along the rivers are very prone to flooding. While in college we had two major floods. Before all the flood control was built in the last century, this type of thing was a lot more common. Due to the flood control measures taken, we see a lot less of it and thus it is so newsworthy. I also think we become overconfident that we have nature harnessed. There is a lot of hardship going on there now. I am sure our Adventist community services are actively working to help out.

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