Cedar Rapids Floods

I've been meaning to update the blog with a few different posts. I will get to those eventually in the next couple days. I just had to post about the flooding that my hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is dealing with right now. I am just in awe of the pictures and cannot even imagine what it must be like there.


For those unfamiliar with Cedar Rapids, this picture shows the downtown. The building on the right is the Courthouse and sits on an island in the middle of the Cedar River. There are several street bridges that cross the river at various points to get from the east side of the city to the west side. ALL of the bridges have water over them. You can't get across the city anymore. The entrance/exit ramps to the Interstate are closed. This is worse than the floods of 1993. (Sidenote: I was on a school trip to France in 1993 and the Iowa floods made the news there, in FRANCE!)

For more images of the flooding you can visit this newspaper website: The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Fortunately, my mom and Dave live on the highest point in the city so their house is in no danger of being flooded. But many, many people have already been evacuated and lost their homes, including Jim Grahlman, one of my mom's regular golfing buddies. His house is just a few blocks from Ellis Park and there is water half way up the front windows of the house. They lost everything.

The city is telling everyone to conserve water and that water may be shut off in the very near future. My mom has filled the bathtub up with water to boil for drinking in the event they shut down the city's water. It's just unfathomable to me. I told my mom to come up here and stay with us, but they aren't even sure if they can get through Waterloo to make it up here. They would have to go way out of their way, which they would be willing to do to get here, except for the fact of my other piece of news.

My stepdad, Dave was scheduled to have heart bypass surgery tomorrow (Friday the 13!). And believe it or not they have cancelled his surgery and are rescheduling it for possibly Monday due to the flooding and inclement weather! Dave's surgery came up somewhat unexpectedly. As many of you know, he had the mildest of heart attacks last fall (I think it was last fall), and they put a stint in his artery. He went in for a completely routine check-up to see how the stint was working and they discovered it was completely closed up with scar tissue. His heart somehow created a new vein to redirect blood flow which is why he had been feeling completely well.

Dave had been feeling normal, lost weight, and was eating right. So this was a big surprise to everyone. But now, he'll have the surgery and hopefully be fine. At any rate, our thoughts go out to everyone in the flooded areas of the Midwest and in hoping Dave's surgery goes well whenever it does take place.

I ask those of you that read our blog to keep Dave and the people of Cedar Rapids, as well as all the areas in the Midwest affected by flooding, in your thoughts! Thanks!!

Edited to add: cnn.com has a headline story on the flooding here. And here.