Cedar Rapids — the Deluge

The dis-oriented author lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. If you have been following the news, my hometown is at the epicenter of a flood of biblical proportions. I had heard of a 100 year flood but until this week I had never heard of a 500 year flood.

This is the part about traveling for a living that I hate — I feel so helpless sitting in a hotel 300 miles away.

Currently there are nearly 20,000 people displaced form their homes. Our levees have been breached and the river is still rising and tonight we have a tornado watch. The river rose 8 feet today and the level is currently 12 feet above the all-time record.

Tonight around 10pm, the city put out a call for volunteers to help sandbag and protect a city pumping station. The city just announced that they had 1200 volunteers and had to start turning people away.

Tomorrow I am going to try to drive home but with so many highways and bridges closed I don't even know if I will make it.

I am watching CNN right now and a reporter just said that it looked like a scene out of Katrina. But I must say, as a lifelong Iowan, that we will recover. Iowans look out for one another, we care for each other. We will survive.