It just keeps rising!

While you watch this video.....chant to yourself the theme from "Jaws!"

So it has been a week since I last blogged. The reason I have not posted is because I have come home exhausted everyday from sandbagging in our community. However, the neighborhood that I helped sandbag succumbed in the end and the water is 7 feet high in their houses. However, our efforts were not in vain. I am sure this lent the homeowners a little more time to move out their possessions. Below is a house that I worked on for two days. It is now an aquarium.

This is what the Iowa River looked like last Friday as it went underneath the Burlington bridge. Usually, this is a very calm river.



This is my room mate Josh by the Burlington Bridge.



One of the buildings on the left side of this aerial picture, is El Dorado Mexican Restaurant. I had dinner here in January with my Mom. Back then we were having the same problem. Inundated with snow. Somethings never change, H20 phases do.


These next few pictures are down the street from El Dorado and the Coralville Strip. This, by the way, is the business center of Coralville. Usually, this street is very busy with cars.




This is a view of the road on the way to the art and music side of campus. I would say the clearance is a little less then 14' 5."



I didn't work on Thursday or Friday. I took both days off with no pay as did most of my office to help sandbag. We sandbagged the well pump heads for our city. That was an amazing effort. If it were not for every volunteer working with urgency we would not have clean water to drink. We would be 'up the creek' like they are in Cedar Rapids. This is my friend Michele Bowen running on a pile of sandbags.


This is my room mate Josh and I at one of the Well heads . The water had already surrounded this well head and we were working feverishly to get it secure. They believe we should be okay and that the water will be safe. They were using a frontloader to get us on and off of the well head island. It was amazing. Josh has a picture of us on the frontloader. I will have to wait until he gets back from his National Guard duty. He was activated that evening for flood emergency detail.


This is Dubuque street. This is the main entrance to the City. It requires a lengthy detour to get downtown.

Josh and I made our own detour. All of the roads were closed, we were both tired and didn't feel like biking an additional 9 miles to get home so we forded a flood and a meadow.


We have another picture of me with my bike loaded in a row boat crossing a stream. We used almost every form of self propelled motion to get home.

Josh emerging from the Meadow. It was a sea of weeds.


Well, this flood has broken all of the records, even the great flood of 93'. It is truly of biblical proportions(whatever that means)!

What a bitter sweet experience this has been. There has been destruction in IC and CR. Mostly in CR. People have lost everything. I have witnessed my community come together and work in a way to preserve our way of life. Every day this week I would reach a point where I didn't think I could lift, pass, or throw another bag. Somehow if I stayed a little longer I was given strength beyond my own. I have a good feeling in my heart. I volunteered more then 33 hours this past week.

My arms are scratched. My fingers, wrists, and forearms are sore. I am exhausted and I feel invigorated. In the spirit of Shoe Less Joe Jackson, I really do think Iowa is Heaven. This is a great place. My heart and prayers are with those that are suffering. May God bless them and all of us.