First of all, the sheer disaster of the entire downtown area under water was incomprehensible to not only me, but to everyone alive. No one predicted that the water would rise and crest to 31 feet! The huge flood of 1993 was a mere 2o feet, and that was considered HUGE!What has happened here is unprecedented in many ways. They call this a "500 Year" flood, in that a disaster of this magnitude only comes around once every 500 years. And in this scenario, there is a 500 Year flood evacuation plan. 12 blocks on both sides of the river were mandated to evacuate. Take a few things here and there, but leave everything else behind. Every person and animal had to find shelter with more often than not, just their shirts on their backs.
Travel, although not advised was severely crippled as ALL bridges were either closed or completely under water. The only way from one side of the river to the other was the ONE highway (I 380). Of course, this route
was so inundated with traffic, it was like a parking lot. The one time I had to take I 380 was on my way home from work Wednesday afternoon, and the combination of shock, disgust and sadness made its way through my bones, especially when I saw my dad's old Dairy Queen under water. Although we no longer own the DQ, it will always be in our hearts, especially since my Dad built this one from the ground up.It was mind-numbing to see the courthouse and Mays Island under water. All the main downtown bridges completely deluged--you could only see the tops of the railings. Very few downtown structures were spared. Even the biggest Hospital was completely evacuated. Another landmark near and dear to my Bohemian heart is the Czech Village area and National Czech Museum. I hope and pray that it can fully recover, especially knowing that it is the only Czech Museum in the entire country.
Although, I could go on about this horrible and devastating catastrophe, I also wanted to point out some things that make me proud to be CR native. The community, as a whole, really came together to help each other. Volunteers were aplenty during the crisis. Emergency responders moved quickly to try to rescue people and animals and were affective that not one person or creature was left behind, which is simply amazing. Shelters were opened up immediately and even the full ones weren't going to turn any person down. Clothes and other items were donated at a record pace.
What really hit me hard, and in a good way, was the volunteer effort to sandbag the last water pumping station, and then to immediately march over to Mercy Medical Center to continue the sandbaggging effort. First of all, it was around midnight. Not the time of day where most people are getting ready to perform hard labor. This group of go-getters literally saved the last good water we had in record time. But that wasn't good enough--these diligent, tireless workers made their way to Mercy Medical where they proceeded to line up and factory-pile sandbag after sandbag, after sandbag to try to save the hospital. It didn't matter that they were going to evacuate the patients--they kept going and going. In fact, it was reported that 1200 people showed up to volunteer. They were telling people to go home!
Hats off too, to the state government for being there, and for FEMA for their quick reactions (I guess they learned their lesson from Katrina). Also a special mention to Channel 9 (KCRG) TV. Bruce Aune and Beth Malicki were with us almost 24x7 and it was clear they had passion for their community. Even the Channel 9 sports guys John Campbell and Scott Saville put in a ton of hours. Nothing against the other local channels, but Channel 9 clearly put more heart into it.
Simply put, this is the kind of effort that will save the city. The people of Cedar Rapids came together and helped, offered a hand, supported and rescued. This heroic effort is why Cedar Rapids will survive and even thrive.
That was the Bad and Good. Now the ugly. Every city or community have some dimwits and dumbasses. CR is no exception. Although very minimal, there were a small handful of things that raised my ire.
First of all, people stopping on the freeway to get out of their cars to take videos and pictures. You selfish assholes are putting everyone else at risk and only thinking about yourselves and your sensationalistic evidence that you have witnessed a disaster. You people make me sick.
Secondly, you morons impersonating Emergency personnel or National Guard members, just to get closer to the "action." What the hell do you hope to accomplish? Something to brag about to your buddies? What a stupid act of what? I don't even know... These people should be fined, slapped (literally) and do 10000 hours of community service.And finally, you jerks and selfish, self-centered low-lifes who were knowingly, blatantly and defiantly not complying with the water conservation effort. This might be the lowest of lows. According to the CR Gazette (newspaper), 11% of the population were not conserving water. Well gee whiz, at least they're honest! No showers, doing dishes, laundry were part of this conservation plan. If people did not adhere to this, the city would have lost ALL water and then have to go to a Boil order. Not a good situation at all. There were people out watering their lawns, hosing off their sidewalks, taking showers, flushing their toilets after each use, etc. Thoughtless and gutless. Kudos to those restaurants that served food on paper plates, plastic-ware, etc. Also congrats to those few eateries that shut off their sink water and offered up hand-sanitizer. There were even a few that brought in porta-potties. Then there are places like Lone Star Steakhouse which blatantly disregarded all of the above and decided that any reaction to the disaster was a "corporate" decision. You chicken-shit punks... Lone Star has been a "less than stellar" restaurant for many, many years, and continues to cement their reputation as a bottom-feeder in the food business. On the flip-side, Hamburger Mary's did the opposite. They even put little notes on each table, explaining that they are consciously making an effort to conserve water and how they are doing it. Oh, and the food was phenomenal.
In any event, CR has a lot of rebuilding to do. This was a tragic occurrence. People's lives have been impacted in ways that are unimaginable. However, the silver lining to me, is how this community came together, helped each other and perhaps became a stronger community. Does it take a disaster to bring people, families, friends and even strangers together? Who knows, but I do feel a lot better about rebuilding this city knowing that almost 90% of the community is working together to make it better (the other 10% can go eat at Lone Star and catch salmonella).
