Cedar Rapids flooding
- Thread starter Messi
- Start date
Hoping for no more rain. I think the 2008 flood was projected to crest lower than this, but we got a major downpour on the same day as the crest.
Rain is forecast for Saturday night and Sunday.
Here is the direct link to the river guage in downtown CR.
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=dvn&gage=cidi4
I work in downtown CR and our site is preparing our flood walls for breach even though it might not happen. It is normal protocol when the river is expected to crest at 19 feet or more. All measures put into place because of 2008. River is expected to crest Monday at 24 feet.
It was June, but I get your point! Was working downtown that year as well. Didn't know when I left my office that night I wasn't going to set foot there again for almost five months.
Oops, you're right. I worked in the Guaranty Bank building and walked over to the bridges every day. I was planning on working from home that morning, but the power went out during those storms, so I headed downtown.
I'll never forget watching those buses transporting prisoners off the island. Those drivers had balls of steel to be crossing those bridges with the water reaching the bottom of the windows. A couple partners and I headed to our offices and grabbed files and computers, because we knew it would be a while before we got back inside. Thank goodness we did otherwise our company likely would have been out of business.
I'll never forget watching those buses transporting prisoners off the island. Those drivers had balls of steel to be crossing those bridges with the water reaching the bottom of the windows. A couple partners and I headed to our offices and grabbed files and computers, because we knew it would be a while before we got back inside. Thank goodness we did otherwise our company likely would have been out of business.
I graduated from high school in 08 so I remember the floods the summer before going to ISU. It was just a crazy event. I remember going to seminole valley and ushers ferry and just seeing everything getting demolished. The aftermath to the houses near downtown was heartbreaking too.
Good idea. Let's move a downtown that has been established for 150 years. While you are at it, move Hilton and Jack Trice. It can't be too unrealistic.Lets build in a flood plain
Really was. For a couple months afterward, there was so much debris downtown they wouldn't let us walk. We'd park a few blocks away and they'd bus us to the office. The daily route wound its way through some heavily damaged areas. I remember the first day back at the office tearing up on the bus looking at the devastation.
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I think it was 5 or 6 weeks after before we got back inside. Of course no electricity and we were on the 6th floor. The whole building reeked and it was a 100 degrees inside. All those sandbags filled were useless and then became a burden because they were filled with toxic water that you couldn't just dump out. Even all that was not as bad to me as the first time I drove down 6th street and 2nd/3rd ave on the SW side. Unbelievable what it did to those homes.
2008 my brother was in his first summer camp for ISU football. I want to say it was the very first week and I picked him up to head to the Quad Cities for a Kanye West concert. The plan was to head to Moline, catch the show then drive back. Driving down, obviously you could see how high the rivers were, but we had no idea what we were in for. Driving into Moline I missed my exit and we ended up in a Tornado warning (Moline was also in a warning but they decided not to tell anyone in the arena. Remember, this is before smart phones.). Show up to the Mark of the Quad and it's raining a little, not a lot. When we came out of the show, there was 3 feet of rushing water running through the streets.
We ended up having to crash in Bettendorf then trying to trek back the next day. A 1.5 hour trip took us about 5 hours to get up to Cedar Rapids. Law enforcement blocking the flooded roads had absolutely no clue which ones were open, which were closed, and sent us on a goose chase. We ended up getting to Cedar Rapids safely and he only missed a day of summer workouts.
We ended up having to crash in Bettendorf then trying to trek back the next day. A 1.5 hour trip took us about 5 hours to get up to Cedar Rapids. Law enforcement blocking the flooded roads had absolutely no clue which ones were open, which were closed, and sent us on a goose chase. We ended up getting to Cedar Rapids safely and he only missed a day of summer workouts.
I lived in Mason City during the 2008 floods. I remember coming back from a wedding in Dallas and was curious why all the ditches were full of water in early June. When we got back to Plymouth (just NE of Mason City) we couldn't get into town due to the flooding of Beaver Creek. The Shell Rock River came up within 5 feet of the driveway of the house I lived in on the east side of town.
We were damn lucky that our water never got shut off, and we didn't have any flooding in the basement.
We were damn lucky that our water never got shut off, and we didn't have any flooding in the basement.