Results tagged “Flood”

Here's your earworm: "Flood" by Tool:

Ironically enough, this video was shot in Cedar Rapids roughly one year before the Cedar River went wild.

Finally feeling human again after soaking in the bath for nearly an hour. Sexy husband and I traveled into the flood-affected areas today to help friends clean up their property. It isn't a pleasant job, and the whole scene is just depressing as hell.

Since the flood happened in Cedar Rapids I've had several people email or call to ask me what is like here. It's difficult, at best, to explain. Sometimes it almost feels like there are two very different worlds -- the part of the community dealing with the flood aftermath and the part that isn't. Outside of my front door is the normal and mundane. People walk dogs, ride bikes, work in their gardens, play with their children and go to work. Just a few miles away, piles of ruined things -- refrigerators, computers, sofas, wood, pictures, etc. -- litter the curbs. Nearly everyone you see in that area has swipes of mud on them... dots of it on their faces and arms, a thick paste of it on their boots and legs. Two very separate existences, and it's odd to be in one and think about the other one.

I've shot lots of video and taken tons of photos throughout the flooding and the aftermath. No matter how many I took, I never thought it was enough. I've finally come to realization that this disaster is too big to be captured on film. The best I can offer is small, closed windows.

One of the things that I'll never be able convey through the computer -- and each and every one of you should be grateful for this -- is the smell. Anyone who's been to Cedar Rapids is quite familiar with the "City of the Five Smells" play on words for the city's motto of "City of the Five Seasons." Everyone who has ever visited and made that joke should be forced to come back and clean out a basement or two. The smell, which can be found well outside the affected areas, is simply overwhelming. Imagine a bouquet of sun-dried fish, sewage, mold and thousands of rotting things.

While I realize I didn't make the build-up into this request for assistance very appealing, I would like to recommend that everyone able go into the affected areas and help with clean-up. No one should have to go through something so traumatic alone.

As a final note on the floods, my hat is off to the Red Cross. From face masks to warm meals, the Red Cross is here. I was told by the man driving the truck today that they served roughly 10,000 meals in the area yesterday... and they upped their distribution to 12,000 today. There are many cleaning up their homes that would work for hours on end without food or a break if it were not for the Red Cross mobile units driving by and offering. For those who want to help by making a donation, I recommend either the Red Cross or the Humane Society.

In other news, I knew there was a reason I didn't like tennis. It has a name: Justin Gimelstob.

Hat tip to the SAFER blog for alerting me that the United Nations has declared rape and other forms of sexual abuse as war crimes.

There's a fairly interesting read at Gay Patriot that is basically a response to a piece written by Gene Stone for the Huffington Post. For what it's worth, I mostly agree with the Gay Patriot on this one. Stone wrote an article detailing the discrimination against gays by the Republican Party, but instead of writing it straight, he mostly dips into the trap of calling those gay who choose to support the Republican Party stupid. As Grandma likes to say, "You catch more bees with honey..."

But, like Stone, I have a very difficult time imagining people voting against their own best interests. For instance, I have a difficult time understand why any woman would be a Republican. Seriously. This is party that believes I can't be trusted with a choice, but I'm able to handle raising children.

I think what it must come down to is what people consider to be most important. For those who support the Republican Party, which has time and again shown that it prefers a very narrow societal view, there must be a certain issue and/or group of issues that is considered more important than personal freedom and civil rights.

Cedar Rapids is not New Orleans. I know, sometimes when we throw back one too many it's difficult to tell if you're in the Czech Village or the French Quarter... still a bit of booze isn't even enough of an excuse for this type of crap.

If you want to play politics or toss racial slurs, do it on your own dime and don't drag the people of New Orleans or Cedar Rapids into it. All of us deserve better.

Click on any of the photos below to open a much larger image.

The railroad bridge that serves Quaker Oats remains standing, although several house boats traveled from Ellis Harbor and became lodged on it during the flood. At least two of the house boats have been removed -- and many more can be found in pieces in the nearby residential area -- but this is how the bridge looked on Friday evening.

The railroad bridge that serves Penford did not survive the flood. As the waters have lowered, pieces of the twisted remains are becoming visible.

by Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel

I place an icon of a dark skinned Christ in the lobby of a Cornell College residence hall where 150 day laborers--mostly Hispanic and African American--are housed when not working 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. shifts cleaning Iowa's flood-torn cities. The image depicts Christ with an open Bible pointing to the words "Whatsoever you do to the least of my sisters and brothers you do it to me." Mixed metaphor abounds. These poor, hard working men and women are the calloused hands of Christ tending Iowa's wounds and grief. In return I beg the question as to whether Iowa and other flooded states will care for and protect them in return.

I'm an Episcopal priest and the chaplain at Cornell College, a United Methodist affiliated college housing hundreds of Red Cross workers, state patrol officers, displaced people, and businesses, as well as these migrant workers brought here to aid in the clean-up effort in cities like Cedar Rapids, where 25,000 people were evacuated and 400 city blocks of businesses, city government buildings, social service agencies, churches, hospitals, and homes were destroyed.

Workers beam proudly when I express Iowa's gratitude for their aid. The stories they in turn tell me, however, include being on a bus for fourteen hours without food, no tetanus shots, no bedding or towels for showering, only $15 a day for food and expenses (try eating out for $5 a meal then deduct for hygiene products, coffee, etc), less than minimum wage compensation, then paying the company back $49 a week per person for the school bus gas it takes get to Cedar Falls.

In fairness to the company, they are as overwhelmed as the rest of us in managing this large-scale crisis, and are working to meet the college's demands for worker safety, health, nutrition and basic standards of human decency. Everyone is now vaccinated, they are being paid Iowa's minimum wage, food is being provided, and those in tears begging to go home are having that request honored. Local residence are filling in with supplemental food and fans, The Iowa Conference of The United Methodist Church and the national Board of Church and Society have worked closely with Cornell to ensure worker dignity and rights, and both a Hispanic Roman priest and a Catholic Charities national representative have assisted me with pastoral care.

If this is happening in this one little refugee town, then such intentional and unintentional exploitation of the poor amid our relief efforts surely is happening throughout the Midwest. As a priest and citizen, I beg this state and nation to tell day laborers "thank you, we appreciate and need you" --not only for our economic wellbeing but for the resurrection of our cities amid disaster. Then, inquire into the companies' treatment and wellbeing of the migrant workers in your local community's relief efforts. Amidst the chaos of the flood, don't lose sight of enforcement of state labor laws and standards of basic human decency, not to mention the biblical mandate to care for the poor and marginalized. As a Baptist preacher recently said on our campus, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. left behind unfinished business with America. He knew that it was so big that he'd leave it for us to do.

With each passing day a few more blocks of Cedar Rapids homes and businesses are inspected and opened to property owners. With each passing hour, the mountains of flood debris pile higher and friendships grow deeper.

"Cold water," shouts Amanda Brinker as she and her mom drive slowly up and down streets on the city's southwest side. "Do you need some cold water?"

The Brinker family is one of many that didn't suffer property damage in recent floods.

"We know how lucky we are," Amanda said. "We just want to do whatever we can to help those who are out here cleaning up this mess and trying to put their lives back together."

The Brinkers aren't alone. A husband and wife drive around distributing emergency kits from the Red Cross. A pickup with coolers of water, soda and beer trolls the neighborhood. Area students lug heavy furniture and soggy carpets out of homes.

"I couldn't sit at home, not when I knew there would be people who could use a hand," said Jason Blake, who plans to attend Coe College this fall. "Just look at all of this. It's devastating. What kind of a person would I be if I just watched it on the television and didn't come and help?"

Dan Lacey, a home owner in the flood affected area, points to the pile of ruined furniture, appliances, DVDs and other assorted household belongings that now rest on the curb in front of his home.

"Welcome to our garage sale," he jokes. "Today, everything is half price!"

As he and a friend take a break from clean up, he tells the story of the soiled American flag that flies from his porch.

"Dirty or not, that's where it needs to be," he said. "I took it down when we had to evacuate, but putting that flag out was the first thing I did when we were able to get back in here."

Although water still stands in lower portions of the Time Check Neighborhood on the city's northwest side and Czech Village on the southwest side, most the flood-affected areas have been cleared by the Urban Search and Rescue Teams. The downtown bridges, much missed by those trying to get from Point A to Point B over the past week, have re-opened. As of Wednesday morning, the city had only one reported case of looting and no loss of human life as a direct result of the flooding.

City officials warned in a news conference on Wednesday morning that damage has steadily increased as the inspection teams have been able to enter properties closer to the Cedar River.

"Those residents need to prepare themselves emotionally," said Dave Koch of the Cedar Rapids Fire Department.

A spokesman for St. Luke's Hospital said the facility's emergency department is beginning to see people with illnesses, such as diarrhea, that are believed to be flood related. Some residents that have re-entered the flood-affected areas are also beginning to develop the "chemical burn" rash on their lower extremities that has afflicted many of the emergency response team members.

Still, Cedar Rapidians are, by and large, pulling together and cleaning up the mess. A hand-crafted sign on 6th Street SW proclaims: "Huge Neighborhood Block Party 6-12-2009."

On Thursday, June 12, I took this photo on 3rd Ave SE, looking toward the Cedar River:

When I walked through the downtown area on Sunday, June 15, I tried to stand in the same spot on 3rd Avenue and re-create the earlier photo:

Keep in mind that by the time I was able to access downtown, crews had already been into the area to begin clean-up. Also, this location is a little further from the river. As such, it did not suffer the truly brutal currents that were present on 1st Street and 2nd Street.

This picture looks surreal to me -- just minor debris and muck on the sidewalks and streets as evidence of what had been there only days earlier. But don't let it fool you, because major damage lurks in each of the buildings shown.

This morning one of the Essential Estrogen readers emailed photos of the horrific damage from within Alliant Tower, located near the intersection of 1st Street SE and 2nd Avenue SE in downtown Cedar Rapids. Before I post the photos of the damage, here's a still from my video of how the building looked on Thursday, hours before the Cedar River found its crest:

Here are the reader-submitted photos of the damage inside the tower:

This is the lobby. You can see the elevators in the back and the waterline on the walls and office windows.

Another lobby photo. Look how the flood waters have damaged the wood.

A hallway near a window showing severe wall damage.

This is an office area.

The next four photos are of individual offices within this area -- at least what is left of them.