No 56k: The Floods of 2008

[Silverstar]

Well, it's been about a week now since the floods washed through here. I would have never thought I would see any flooding on this scale so close to where I live. I'm sure many of you, stateside and international, have gotten a glimpse of the damage from aerial shots and bits of pictures.

But I thought I would show a collection of photos I have starting from Tuesday the 10th of June, untill today June 19th for me. I know there is a bit here, but I thought it would be appropriate enough to show them. This flood is going down in history. It was a 500 year flood, but went past even that prediction in terms of area that got affected in my area.

For reference, I live in town where marked and I have circled where the majority of these pictures were taken.



June 10th:

I drove out to the newest addition called Cedar Heights. Maybe two miles from the main part of town. I had thought there wasn't going to be much to see, but in the following days...boy I was wrong.

Here is the lowest part of the housing area, there is never water here. It should be back about 100m to the left of this photo.


This sign is about 5ft/1.5m high, you'll see another shot of this later


Across bridge, shot is looking to the northeast...water is up about 3ft from normal. Trees in background are under, housing is just on the other side of them.


This is the final time I would be on this road, as you can see the water has already crept up and starting to move over the road. This is on the southside of the river, looking back to the bridge.


June 11th:

Went back to the neighborhood and bridge...got worse.

Looking down the street, drove down there just 24 hours before, sign I took a shot of is now under water.


Shooting to the Southwest on the upstream side, almost above the support columns.


Water is now up and over the road I was parked on, downstream side of the road causing the water to turn into rapids




Road starting to get taken out here, and those people across there were cut off from any town untill just this Monday, both this side and the closest city to them went under.



Went and volunteered on the night of the 11th to try and save the houses that were about to take on water.




June 12th:

Back down to town again, up another 2ft from the day before


Didn't go across the bridge this time, though some did get gutsy...water up way over the support columns, almost touching the center of the support beams. Raining real hard here.



June 13th

Cousin calls me, tells me he'll be at my door in 15min. We're going to a town called Tipton that is going to direct us to small towns along the Cedar River that are still downstream from where we are and try to help.

So we get to Tipton and they direct us to a township called Rochester, population 600. We get there and things are already grim.

We arrived and this is what was left for sand. We talked to one of the firefighters and she said it was the last the town was going to get, that the county needed sand elsewhere to protect bigger towns. It's such a sad situation...they are right on the banks of the Cedar River.

Cop blocking Iowa Highway 1, flooded about four miles up from there




So I went down the block and took a couple shots...


There should be another street behind the red barn to the right, and the river should be about 100yds behind that.

[Silverstar]

So after helping another town after leaving Rochester, we went home and I drove myself back down to the housing area here by the river, and thankfully the waters crested over night and receded.


But all was lost for the road...total loss, and God knows when they will repair it.


Nothing much to say here...but it's gone.




But the water was still above the last time I took a picture of this sign, but look at the trees...the water was well above the shot from all the mud that was on the leaves...unbelievable.



June 19th

Today I had to go downtown for a doctors appointment and pick up some prescriptions at the pharmacy. I called my couin since she works there and asked if it was sane enough to take 1st Avenue (which was completely gone during the high point of the flood) to get there, since it was the quickest.

Well I did..and had the camera at my side.

leaves, junk and a fence almost bent over from the flood. The water we over the fence from what I could tell.


Stop lights knocked over, there was about two blocks of no lights..but traffic wasn't too bad or stupid.


Loads of damaged items and debris being piled up for pickup later this week.


You can see here how far the water went up, and this is about 1/2 a mile from the river itself, and it had to rise at least 10ft to get to these buildings, and more then that to get that high.


Windows busted out on one side


County Sherrif's office, water went up to over the garage door windows, they're saying three months worth of repairs.


This is the craziest thing of the day. That storage container belongs ten blocks north, not under the interstate overpass. It is completely insane that it floated that far, and ended up right there.



This was a very emotional experiance for me, being that I saw a town with no hope get wiped out, hundreds of houses and businesses lost, and so much damage. I come out of this without a scratch, but I respect the many people who have held in their emotions enough to get through this, and then turn around and help their neighbor to recover. I have definately come to respect mother nature also.

[BlaRo]

And the eerie thing is, with the exception of the road, it doesn't even look that bad judging by the pictures alone - all blue skies and puffy white clouds, with the exception of the entire street underwater. Scary stuff, I can't imagine what it's like to be there. Glad you're ok.

[cvrefugee]

How did the floods start? Is it common for this to happen in your area but not at this scale?

[Silverstar]

It was indeed a strange scene to be in the floods during certain days, and there was perfect weather.

cvr: There was some extreme days of rain in this area and a the Dakotas/Minnesota, and naturally the water followed south.


This should be my last set of pictures, went to downtown Cedar Rapids to see how a friend's office came out from the flood.

Again for reference, where I was and where the majority of shots that I took are located



Looking south down 3rd Street


Just up the street, I was very suprised that the cars stayed in their spots after seeing some float away during the flood


The front of his office, does computer/server networking, systems for small business/schools...whole place is a loss.


Front glass, completely intact after a week of flooding


Phone out front, caked in mud/silt


Main room completely ruined, you can see how far the water went up, probably 10ft


Back out front, some of the items from the pawn shop in the same building



We were driving to the bridges and I about jumped out of his car to shoot this, I found it very symbolic.


16th Avenue bridge, furthest south we went..still closed. Some lady actually drove around the barrier a couple minutes before I took this shot...very ignorant


One of the houses in the area


Debris under 16th Avenue bridge

[Silverstar]

Huge tree trunk stuck under 16th Avenue bridge


MLK Jr./12th Avenue bridge


Looking north at the train bridge from 12th Avenue bridge, about to go over to the bridge right beside it




Now looking at it from the 8th Avenue bridge..a stones throw away


Loads of junk piled washed up on it







Didn't even think I was going to get this close to the area again, but alas I got to see what I saw on TV up close again, even if it's only 10 miles from my home. Over the TV it felt so far away.

So aftewards we went down to Iowa City to help a real estate company setup all of their computers and restore their network. Was about 7 hours worth of time getting everything setup there again, but it was worth it to help another company get back on its feet after the floods.