40,000 Iowans homeless as floodwaters recede
Pastor Dale Morgan
40,000 Iowans homeless as floodwaters recede*
By Alan Gomez, Marisol Bello and Judy Keen, USA TODAY
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Marie Welton figures her daughter will have to
bulldoze her flooded home here. She worries about the survival of her
own business, a children's hair salon, as people recover from epic
flooding that put 1,200 blocks underwater.
"They say we're going to be resilient. They say we'll overcome this,"
Welton, 52, said Sunday, but Iowans' can-do spirit "is going to keep
going down before it comes up."
Floodwaters began to recede Sunday in Iowa's two largest cities, Des
Moines and Cedar Rapids, and the Iowa River crested in Iowa City after
swamping part of the University of Iowa, but many communities face
daunting cleanup and recovery efforts as the waters still threaten
communities elsewhere in the region. Downstream Iowa communities such as
Wapello, Burlington and Keokuk are braced for record flooding. Davenport
put out an urgent call Sunday for volunteers to fill sandbags to
reinforce two levees.
The National Weather Service predicts record flooding on the Mississippi
River on Wednesday and Thursday at Canton, Hannibal and Louisiana, Mo.,
and Quincy, Ill. Authorities in Alexandria and Canton called for
voluntary evacuations Sunday. Workers rushed to add 3 feet of sandbags
to Canton's 27.5-foot levee. The river is forecast to crest there at 28
feet — 14 feet above flood stage.
"We're preparing for crests that are coming Wednesday through Friday
that will rival the all-time records of 1993," Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter
Kinder said.
For a week, relentless storm systems that spawned tornadoes and dumped
torrents of rain have flooded huge portions of the upper Midwest.
Flooded rivers and breached levees forced tens of thousands of people to
evacuate, caused millions of dollars of damage, covered vast stretches
of farmland and strained the patience of people across the region.
Iowa, hit hardest through the weekend, got more rain Sunday. Brian
Pierce, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Davenport, said
the next three or four days will be generally dry.
About 40,000 Iowans in 11 counties are homeless, Gov. Chet Culver said
Sunday. In Cedar Rapids, 25,000 people were forced from their homes. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking applications for disaster
assistance.
"This is far over record flooding. It is of historic proportions," David
Miller, administrator of the Iowa Division of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management, said at a briefing. Eighty-three of Iowa's 99
counties have been declared state disaster areas. Three deaths were
attributed to flooding.
In Cedar Rapids, in blocks where the water had receded, residents waited
in line for a chance to grab a few things from their homes with police
escorts. City spokesman Dave Koch said initial estimates of property
damage total $1 billion.
When Kaleen Large left her house Thursday, water was rising and TVs were
floating. She grabbed the cedar chest her late grandmother had left her.
It was a 1939 graduation gift filled with photo albums, family heirlooms
and Large's childhood stuffed duck.
Large, Welton's daughter, pushed it halfway up the stairs to the second
floor before police ordered her out. "It's frustrating, of course," said
Large, 33, "but everybody's in the same boat. Well, not really."
David Eberle was angry as he waited at one of 10 checkpoints. "The
longer they make us wait, the more trouble we're going to be in," said
Eberle, 48. "We should be able to save our homes." He could have been
cleaning out mold-causing muck, he said.
Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham said he understood the
frustration. It's important, he said, to maintain a secure perimeter
around flooded neighborhoods to prevent looting and to ensure that
nobody walks into a house with structural or electrical problems.
"If we start losing control, we'll never get it back," Graham said.
Steve Daringer had no reason to line up. His home was still underwater.
He's still paying off the government loan he used to repair his house
from a 1993 flood and doesn't know what to expect when he finally can go
home. "We have no idea what's left," he said.
Sharon Hicks did get a look at her house. After taking a few steps in,
she looked down at the water-soaked floor and said, "I don't want to
look. It's a disaster."
Hicks left with a bag full of wet clothes and pictures of her late
mother and late sister that hung unharmed above the flood level. The
house was a muddy mess. Her collections of Elvis Presley mementos and
Native American art were scattered on the floor. A cabinet was on the
wrong side of the room.
"I was going to get my clothes, but my dresser's upside down," said
Hicks, 66, a retired nurse's aide. One of her daughters, Marsha Hicks,
couldn't even reach her basement apartment. When she pulled open the
door, water was still up to the top step.
"Everything I owned was down there," said Marsha Hicks, 48. "I need some
air. I can't breathe." She had left Thursday to run errands and came
back 90 minutes later to find the basement completely flooded.
"It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie with the water coming up behind
me," she said.
The National Weather Service said the flow on the Cedar River through
Cedar Rapids peaked at 149,500 cubic feet per second Friday, more than
doubling the previous record of 73,000 in 1961.
The river fell to 24.6 feet Sunday, a drop of more than 5 feet from
Friday's crest of 31.1 feet.
The town of Palo, which has fewer than 1,000 residents, is still
unreachable, said Linda Langston, chairwoman of the Linn County Board of
Supervisors.
She said teams have gone in to assess damage. They want to secure two
floating propane tanks and check other hazards before letting people
return. "They're not going to like what they see," she said.
'Flood of epic proportions'
The Iowa River crested in Iowa City on Sunday at 31.5 feet, earlier and
18 inches lower than projected. The river is expected to remain at that
level through today.
"It's a flood of epic proportions for us," said Mike Sullivan, a
spokesman for the Johnson County Office of Emergency Management. He said
5,000 people were displaced in the county of 111,000. The worst flooding
was in Iowa City and neighboring Coralville.
"The escalation of this event has hopefully stopped," Iowa City manager
Michael Lombardo said. He said it could take five to 10 days for the
water to begin to recede.
"This is the worst flooding event in the history of Iowa City," Lombardo
said. In 1993, the previous record flood, it took more than a month for
water to recede. At least 200 homes have been flooded and 600 people
evacuated.
Brian Mara fled his second-floor apartment in Coralville on Friday as
water streamed in under the door. He left so quickly, he forgot his
wallet with his ID and bank card. He paddled back on an air mattress
later Friday to retrieve his wallet.
"I'm homeless," Mara said. "Everything I own was in there. I don't know
what I'm going to do."
On Sunday, wearing the T-shirt, beige cargo shorts and flip-flops he
wore when he fled, Mara, 40, a carpet installer, helped his co-workers
and boss salvage merchandise from a flooded warehouse. "Ugh," he said,
scraping muck off his feet on a patch of grass. "There's no clean water
here anywhere."
The basement showroom of Randy's Carpets and Interiors flooded almost to
the top, while its one-story warehouse nearby flooded up to 3 feet deep.
Sullivan said the county is trying to protect six power substations that
supply electricity to hundreds of thousands of people. Four are
surrounded by water, but temporary levees were holding Sunday.
Sixteen University of Iowa buildings, including the art museum and a
recital hall, were flooded. The university suspended summer classes and
told non-essential workers to stay away. Art treasures by Pablo Picasso
and Jackson Pollock had been removed.
"We are not through this by any means," university President Sally Mason
said. "The water is very, very high. If the buildings take on more
water, they could become unstable. It is a very volatile situation."
'We've been through it before'
In Des Moines's capital, the Des Moines River broke through a levee
Saturday after volunteers, city workers and Iowa National Guard troops
worked for days to shore it up. More than 200 homes, a high school and
three dozen businesses were inundated.
Leane Hartney and Rebekah Dunlap awoke at a motel to see television
images of their home engulfed by floodwaters. A day earlier, they
thought it would be safe. "When I saw that, I was just sick," Hartney said.
Kathy and John Essex reopened their restaurant, Mr. Bibbs, 18 weeks
after the floods of 1993 with $60 borrowed from a relative in the cash
register. They had used all their savings to clean and repair their
north Des Moines restaurant. "The first time was the worst. It broke my
heart," said Kathy Essex. "This time, we knew it was going to happen.
We've been through it before; we'll be able to do it again."
In Columbus Junction, where the Cedar and Iowa rivers meet, crews spent
Friday building a temporary levee. It gave way Saturday night, flooding
the town of 2,000.
Councilman Hal Prior said the bowling alley, senior center, grocery
store and medical offices were flooded to their roofs. The water
treatment plant is flooded and inoperable. Two 18-wheelers of bottled
water were delivered by the state, county and National Guard.
Officials worked to hook up 3,000-foot hoses from their water system to
one operated by a Tyson's chicken plant on the outskirts of town to
supply residents with water for bathing and flushing toilets. The town
is trucking in portajohns until the city can supply sufficient running
water.
"The good news is that the crest has passed and the water dropped 4
inches in the last half-hour," Prior said Sunday. "We think we've passed
the crisis." The bad news: Floodwaters are unlikely to recede fully for
at least a week, he said.
The region's economy will feel the flood's effects long after the water
retreats. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has closed a 315-mile stretch
of the Mississippi River to barge traffic, starting at Bellevue, Iowa,
and ending at Winfield, Mo.
Corps spokesman Alan Dooley said that during the last two weeks of June
2007, 1,881 barges carrying more than 2 million tons of commodities
passed through the locks at Winfield. More than half of that cargo was
agricultural commodities such as corn; the rest was coal, petroleum
products, chemicals and construction supplies, he said.
Iowa business, farm and government leaders said losses are likely to
exceed the $2.1 billion in damages and lost business in 1993. In the
short term, though, the rebuilding of homes, businesses and
infrastructure could create an uptick in Iowa's economy. "We're talking
2 to 3 billion to get this place back on its feet," said Lee Clancey,
president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.
Agriculture losses could have global implications. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture recently lowered forecasts for this season, which if
accurate will mean higher prices for food, livestock and ethanol. "This
is a disaster that's growing in size every day," said Craig Lang,
president of the Iowa Farm Bureau. "I am deeply, deeply concerned that
there will be farmers who simply won't survive this."
Missouri might take the next hit. Many levees in the region have been
improved since the 1993 floods, but those in northeastern Missouri
aren't as high as those around St. Louis, Dooley said. Many levees north
of St. Louis have as much as a 12.5% chance of being inundated in any
given year, he said.
This is likely to be one of those years. "We are confident that there
are levees up there that will be overtopped," Dooley said.
Bello reported from Iowa City, Keen from Chicago.
Contributing: Matt Kelley and Bob Swanson in McLean, Va.; The Des Moines
Register