As many of you have seen, we here in Iowa are having fun trying to stay dry this summer. The water is higher in places now than it was during the '93 floods and 4 of our major cities have been affected. Des Moines has closed part of its downtown, evacuating people that live and work there. The ballpark is closed for now and many bridges are closed as well. Repairs to the structures will take quite a while and will be very expensive. Cedar Falls and Waterloo are similarly affected. The downtowns are off-limits to everyone and looters have been arrested in both cities. Cedar Rapids probably has it the worst of all. They were largely unaffected by the floods of '93 and people got a false sense of security because of it. The Cedar River is some 20 feet above flood stage and was rising as of yesterday. MSNBC has some interesting video from there (the area shown is 3 blocks from the river and the current is amazing). A railroad bridge collapsed dropping a freight train into the water. No one was injured, fortunately.
We spent much of yesterday stacking sandbags here in my little town (those things get heavy after a while, by the way), but the river has not challenged us yet. The sandbags are sitting on dry land and will likely not get wet. There is 1 bridge across the Iowa River that is open and it is 2 miles from my house. We crossed it yesterday and saw water flowing back into the river channel from the fields. That is a good sign, IMO.
It appears the worst is over here, as the forecast is for dry conditions to continue with only scattered showers for the next couple of days.

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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans..." John Lennon

Hopefully those sandbags do stay dry.

I am glad everything is well with you Catman. Those Cedar Rapids pictures are amazing. We had floods like that last winter, but luckily the cities affected had their downtown cores away from the rivers so mostly Wal-Marts and farms got flooded. Cedar Rapids is a different story. They are built around the river and the city hall itself is located on that former island in the middle of the Cedar R.

Here is a link to some pics:

News: Eastern Iowa Local and Regional News | GazetteOnline.com - Cedar Rapids, Iowa City

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are both suffering from the worst flooding in their histories. Water is higher here right now than it was in 1993.
It appears those sandbags will dry out and go into some kid's sandbox. They have not been really necessary. I would much rather have stacked them just to let them dry out than wish we would have done so.

I fear that we are next.

Bubba, the levees and dikes built after the 93 floods will be tested. Good luck.

Good to see you here catman. I don't know a lot of Iowans so when I was watching the coverage I actually wondered if you were one of the people getting flooded out of house and home.

Hope the worst has passed.

We spent most of last Friday sandbagging around my little town and the sandbags have sat in the sun since then. They have yet to get wet, fortunately. I'd much rather have spent time doing something unnecessary as opposed to wishing we had done something.

Good luck catman. I hope the worst is over for you. We are keeping a watchful eye on the Mighty Missouri here where I am, about a mile away from it, but our neighborhood is on high ground and we are also protected bye a bluff.

My Family is mostly on the Little Sioux and the Floyd, though my one brother is on the Cedar. I have been thinking of all of you Iowans!

Glad to hear you are okay...I hope things get better. I can't say I am surpised at this though...as long as I am been old enough to be aware of these disasters...they just keep getting worse and worse every year.

With the polar ice caps melting away, there is no doubt there is more water available to flood cities. China and England had it pretty bad early this year, now where you guys are. It's not gonna stop until the climate change is somehow reverted...it will only be a matter of year before New Orleans, Florida, Texas or even California are totally screwed.

GFL, earth is cooling, not warming. We are having record cold here in the PNW, and the earth as a whole has been cooling since 1998. Those climate changers are scamsters and religious yahoos. Climate change has been a fact of life on earth for billions of years. It is a crime that people are using thse natural cycles to scam and steal from people.

Cuckoo! Cuckoo! They just opened Aspen back up for the remainder of the month. Snowalquie Pass was snowed shut last week. Contrary to reports the Ice Cap has increased this decade. As mentioned above, the Earth is in a cooling trend. Snow met Spring break travelers all over the mountain regions.

No major hurricanes in the past two years, sub 80 degree temps in the middle of June, if this is global warming I'll take it!

Good to hear my good friends in Iowa are high and dry.....

Your flood and toilet waters are coming down stream.

The '93 floods, where the Missouri and Mississippi merged miles ahead of normal, hasn't occured here near St Louis yet - probably because the Missouri from the west is not so swollen.

Smaller towns north of here are hurting due to Mississippi River levee failures or lack there-of. New and old levees in our metro area seem to be doing the job.

Hope all Outlaws are high and dry

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Glad everyone is ok as well.

I feel for the people going through this, happened to my family when I was a kid, in California of all places. It's a helpless feeling watching the water rise knowing there is nothing you can do about it.

We just drove through Parkersburg, the town that was flattened by a tornado about a month ago. The south side of town is pretty much gone, but the north side looks OK. It was amazing to drive through.