Unprecedented Flooding In Iowa
Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 1:10PM The flooding has affected most of the State of Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, a city that was said would never flood due to historic flooding of years past in which water never crested the banks of the river. Those years were 1851, 1966, and 1993; this year however things are different and they were wrong.
Cedar Rapids like most of the State is experiencing what the National Weather Service calls a "a historic hydrological event." Dave Koch, spokesman for the Cedar Rapids Fire Department said, about 8,000 people have evacuated their homes, and 5,500 were without electricity.
Those whose power has been lost should expect to go without for a week or more as utility companies struggle to prevent further damage to their critical infrastructure, said Scott Drzycimski, a spokesman for Alliant Energy.
The city has evacuated 25,000 people and has about 100 of its city blocks under water while most of the city's efforts to stop damage have failed, such as building up an old levee to increase its height by four feet, the water crested the levee by two feet. Efforts to keep a bridge from being washed away by placing rail cars laden with rocks also failed, the bridge wast toppled by Thursday morning.
Other areas of Iowa are also affected and the State's economy is largely Dependant on agriculture and crops that have been destroyed by the flooding.
Other States such as Wisconsin and Illinois have also been affected, though not to the same extent as Iowa.
AP Video of of Public Works Director statement
Another AP Video showing extent of damage from the air
For much more on this story please see the sources below.
