Flooding In The Midwest

The other day I showed you a few pictures from Cedar Rapids and the flooding that was occurring at the time. Things have calmed a lot in Cedar Rapids and now the trouble is further south. Iowa City is seeing increased river levels and worst yet is Columbus Junction.

Cedar Rapids was flooded by the Cedar River. Iowa City has the Iowa River. Columbus Junction is where both of those rivers meet. They have all kinds of trouble there and after what I saw in Cedar Rapids, I feel for them. I wish them well and hope they can make it through this tough time. This is the type of flood that can devastate a city.

First, here is a video showing the flooding in Cedar Rapids. It is hard to see where the river is in this video. If you want an idea, paused the video at the 29 second mark. You can see the ripple made by the three bridges that cross the Cedar River. To the top left is Interstate 380. There are buildings between the bridges. That is actually Mays Island and the river flows on both sides. You can’t easily tell that from this video.



Second, here is a great video by the Des Moines Register that shows how Iowa City flooded and the number of areas affected. Best explanation for those that don’t know Iowa City. At one point on a map they show Kinnick Stadium, I work right across the street from there. My location wasn’t affected by the flooding but everywhere around there was. This is the damage caused by the Iowa River.



So you see what Cedar Rapids and Iowa City saw. Now imagine both of those rivers heading towards Columbus Junction. They will get the worst of it. Here is a video that talks about the flooding in Columbus Junction and other areas.



Here is another video that talks more about the flooding expected in Columbus Junction.



It will be a couple weeks before things really calm down in Iowa. The cleanup will take a long time and so many homes are lost. They say in Cedar Rapids alone, about 60% of the flooded homes will have to be bulldozed. Like one person said today, I see some nice parks in the not too distant future. I don’t see a lot of people rebuilding in the same area.

I was sent this link the other day. It has some more great pics about the flooding in Cedar Rapids. They truly show how bad this flood was.