Sunday, June 29, 2008

Home, Sweet Home

We were able to move back into our house Tuesday evening, which was a lot sooner than we expected. Boy were we excited! After two weeks of living out of a suitcase, it was sure nice to be back home. Alice was jumping up and down screaming with excitement and Myra was clapping her hands. Our garden was pretty much ruined and there were fish and other dead animals stinking up the garage (where the bodies were trapped once the water receded) but other than that, no damage. We were very thankful.

Here are some pictures we took of our road as the water was receding. You can see where people spray painted lines to show where the water had been. This is Sand Road looking north towards Iowa City. Our house is about a quarter of a mile up and to the right.

Here's another view of the road. Look at the blue highway sign to get an idea of how deep the water is where the road dips. You can see the water mark where the flooding peaked on the wooden post.


Still standing in the same spot but we zoomed in to try to get a shot of our house. Couldn't see the house but the white sign in the distance is in our front yard.

This part of the road became drivable on Saturday, though there is still about 6 inches of standing water in the dip. Someone attached their mailbox to the stop sign at the end of the road so they could keep getting their mail! Why didn't we think of that?


This is a side road that meets Sand Rd. If you go down this road and turn left, our house is about a quarter mile down the road. But really, it's hard to tell where the road actually is! This is the way that opened up for us so we could get to our house.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Flood Update

A few more pictures below. The water peaked at the reservoir in Coralville yesterday afternoon, so now it's just a matter of waiting for the waters to recede (which will take weeks). No essential utilities were lost, so that is good news.

We went to see how close we could get to our house this morning--once we upload the pictures, we'll post those as well. We couldn't get close enough to see the house, but it was interesting to see how high the water got on the roads. Boat access only. Yesterday, we started getting a little worried about flooding in our house. We'd called the neighbors and they were sandbagging and said the water was in their yard, but after looking some data up on the internet, it seemed like the water level had plateaued. For awhile there we were contemplating wading through the water to put more things upstairs, but after seeing it today, the water would have probably reached our shoulders in some parts.

I think this picture was taken on Friday--the water is currently past this intersection. The road going horizontally is the road we're on, except that in-town it's called Gilbert St. We are currently living a few block from this intersection in a friend's duplex.

This is the pedestrian bridge that goes over the river near the Power River Restaurant. This is the restaurant we went to with the drink money we earned last summer. Blew $70 bucks.

Coralville area.

The new Marriott Center where I saw Barack Obama speak.



A couple of weeks ago we took Alice to this park to take her on the kiddie rides they have. The big circle is the merry-go-round and the smaller circle are little airplanes that swing from chains, which Alice always wants to ride.


Here are the well heads that Bruce helped sandbag.


Saturday, June 14, 2008

Care for a Swim?

Well, Bruce is zonked out on the couch right now so I thought I'd take the time to update our friends who we have not yet talked to about the flooding. It's his birthday today, so I figure he deserves a little rest:)

I think many of you know of the flooding problems Iowa has been having these past few weeks. Below are some pictures of areas we commonly drive through. These are from the local newspaper's website (press-citizen.com).

We are currently staying in the duplex of some friends who are gone for the summer. Our house will most likely not be flooded, but on Tuesday, our road was becoming flooded and we decided to leave before we got stuck. On Thursday night we went back to get a few more things and Bruce had to walk through knee deep water for 10 minutes to get to our house. There were so many flooded parts of the road that it was hard to even find a way to get close enough to walk.

Bruce went to help with the sandbagging effort last night, but other than that we haven't been out much. They are asking everyone to stay inside unless it's absolutely necessary (no sightseeing), and especially to stay on your own side of the river, since there is only one bridge still open, connecting the two sides of the city. It's been kind of weird to look at pictures online and to know that we're only a few blocks away from some of these flooded areas! It seems so unreal to me.

To get to Cedar Rapids, normally a 20-30 minute drive, there's a three hour detour because the major Interstate (380) was closed between the cities. In fact, the Iowa City airport--a small airport with no commercial flights--is offering a charter service to Cedar Rapids for $95 a person each way for those who are in a hurry. From what we've been hearing, Cedar Rapids has reached its peak water level and we will reach ours on Monday (though this estimate has changed multiple times based on the rain, etc.). Three of the four water pumps in Cedar Rapids were comprimised, so they've been asked to use water only for drinking--no showers, washing clothing, flushing toilets, etc. So far, our water is still safe but Bruce and I have been anticipating and preparing for future water needs and power outages.



A neighborhood in Coralville where some of the families in our ward live.


Same area--one of the hardest hit areas.


The sand bagging effort. Bruce and I helped with a sand bag wall (not this one) this past weekend that is completely submerged right now. This is a wall to protect some university buildings.


This is one of the buildings at the university.



This is where Bruce was last night (I think) at the water treatment plant, filling sandbags and then he also helped with building the wall.

This is Riverside Dr. in Iowa City, the road I take to get to the hospital and when I'm heading to Coralville (a town right next to IC--so close, can hardly tell when you've crossed into the other city).

This is the intersection of Hwy 6 and Mormon Trek Blvd in Coralville. Bruce turns at this intersection every day on the bus when going from his parking lot to the hospital.