Enough Rain Already!

[Blue Gardener]

I didn't think we would see a repeat of '93 quite this soon. How is everyone holding up? I'm hoping they won't have to close I-380 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City again this time around. That was a mess.

[DU9598]

1. DSM

The water in the river running through downtown is very high and maybe 6 feet or so from the surface roads of the bridges. Our home is waterlogged with water in the basement and a leaky ceiling the brought down drywall and insulation in the gusher rainfall on Thursday night. What a mess.

[Blue Gardener]

2. Will insurance cover any of the repairs?

Sad to think of all the people that will get no assistance since I doubt many have flood insurance.

[rurallib]

3. probably not without flood insurance

[Debi]

5. I'm so sorry -

and it's been raining since hasn't it?

I hope the next couple dry days allow you to clean up (just in time for Wed - Sun. showers x()

[Debi]

4. Poor New Hartford is underwater - folks who lost their homes in the tornado

and moved into open houses in town now have to abandon those for Red Cross shelters in Cedar Falls.

Our wetlands are higher than they have ever been and we're wondering if we will be able to find our way home tonight (or Debi, Jr. will have to fend for himself...at least he won't be having a party...unless his friends have a boat!)

Everyone try to stay dry and safe.

On the positive side - there are no active volcanos in Iowa - and the last earthquake to affect the state was in 1965:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/iowa/history.php - does that help any??? :shrug:

[emmadoggy]

6. Ugh! The Uppper Iowa at Decorah has set a new flood record.

Actually, they kinda smashed the old record. Old record was 15.2 feet and they hit 17.9 ft early this morning. Decorah has a decent dike system and I don't remember it ever getting like this there. The old record was set in 1941! I heard this morning that they evacuated the two nursing homes. Some other areas have had voluntary evacuations, as well.
Dorchester has also set a new record. People had to be rescued there and some trailer homes were washed away. Charles City and Mason City are both in bad shape, as well. Charles City hasn't even been able to get a gage reading because the gage is under water! In 1999, the water reached about a foot from the fire station and this morning there was a foot of water IN the fire station. A levy broke in Mason City.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=arx&storyid=15244&source=0

My Mom's house is about 50 feet from the Wapsi river (waaayy upstream where it's just a baby) and yesterday it was at the top of it's bank (which is pretty high on her side). As far as I know, everything there is ok - haven't been able to get through to them today because the line is always busy!! x( One of my sisters lives in Charles City, but she got stranded at my Mom's the other night during all the tornado warnings for Floyd and Chickasaw counties. I don't know if she has gone home yet or not. She lives in an area that is usually safe from the Cedar river, but there is a small stream not far from her. Hopefully, all is ok at her house.

Hubby and I (in Allamakee county) are fine - we live on pretty high ground with no rivers or streams nearby. There are some minor drainage issues here, so we do tend to get a very soggy yard and our sump pump has been working furiously, but it manages to keep up and keep the basement dry.

Hope everyone else is holding up ok!! Somebody needs to turn the faucet off, like NOW!!

[melissinha]

7. Just reading about Decorah now...

I'm from Decorah so I was worrying about my grandmother who lives on the west side of Decorah down by Aase Haugen one block from the dike.

My uncle went and got her at 7 am and took this morning and reports just now that it doesn't appear to have crested. Man, to beat that last 1941 record by 2 feet?? Worse than 1993??? Thats ALOT. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that on the Decrah Newspapers.. and they say that it is still rising!!!!

I'm in Texas now but I hope you and all my fellow DUers are ok, I'm thinking about you guys!! Take care!!!

[Hardrada]

8. I'm from Decorah too (among a few other places)

and can't remember a lot of water there since 1965 and NEVER anything like that. I always though Decorah was immune from serious flooding because of the high embankments. At least the college is safe up on the hill! I hope it's all dried out by Nordic Fest.

[emmadoggy]

10. Hey, Hardrada.

I don't remember anything like this in Decorah either. Dorchester floods all the time - though they set a record too - but this is VERY unusual for Decorah. Charles City has flooding issues a lot too, but this is bad even for them.
Their historic suspension walking bridge collapsed. I guess, they had just received a grant to restore it and now it is gone. Both of the bridges in town are closed.

Geez, it's just bad all over. :(

[emmadoggy]

9. Hey, mellisinha! I just replied to you in another thread....

Nice to "meet" a former "neighbor". I don't remember ever hearing about Decorah having flooding problems like this. As I said, their dike is pretty good there, so this is certainly a crazy situation. The sad part is that Decorah has never been rated as a flood plain, so no one there has flood insurance. Apparently, the city filed 6 months ago to start the process of being declared a flood plain, but nothing has been finalized yet.

I'm so glad that your uncle was able to get your Grandma out safely.

I'm just itching to drive over and check it out (I'm in Waukon) - but I don't want to be one of those annoying, in-the-way, gawkers.

*sigh* So sad for all affected - and a LOT of people are affected here in Iowa. There are so many roads closed and damaged bridges and homes flooded and broken levies. Going to be high price tag. :-(

[melissinha]

12. I know I want to see too

But I know the roads are blocked, you can't get in... I'm sad too. I know my Granma will be ok, she was planning to move... but the many people who don't have flood insurance!!

Here's a big reason to get a democrat in the White House, to get competent people in FEMA.... Clinton's FEMA Director James Lee Witt was the first FEMA director with Emergency EXPERIENCE!

[Hardrada]

15. Hello to you. By the way the reason the Walmart location

in Decorah was opposed was because it was to be built and (because of a craven city council) WAS built on a flood plain. Now what part of "flood plain" did they not understand? I imagine Wally World there is currently having some problems!

[emmadoggy]

16. Oh, I know. I remember all the hoopla over it.

We actually did take a quick drive over to Decorah yesterday and boy, Walmart dodged a very close bullet. They were closed - not sure if it was because of the river threat or if it was because they were without power. Probably both. But the river was RIGHT there. At the edge of the parking lot where the guard rail is, about 15 feet beyond that was all water. Back at the edge of the loading dock area they had piled several piles of sand. The brand new Gundersen Clinic lucked out also.
Just down the road in Freeport, the water had been over the road, right into a low yard of a new home (and some others). They had sandbags across one side of the road and the water had receded enough that you could now drive by, but the water was literally RIGHT there at the doorstep.
To see the river so swollen and raging like that, with trees and logs floating along, was just unbelievable. The view from up at Phelps Park was unreal. The river is normally about the width of a street and yesterday it looked like the freaking Mississippi.
The dike is doing a great job, but there was water in some areas on the other side and they had huge pumps shooting it back up over the dike into the river. The 5th Ave. bridge was still closed and we didn't go back into that area to see how much water was in the neighborhood there. The houses right on the other side of the dike looked ok (probably soggy basements for sure), but I'm not sure about a little further back towards the college. The College drive bridge was re-opened, but you could only just cross it and then had to turn off because College drive up around Subway and Kum & Go was all under water (the area between the bridge and the Locust Road intersection). It was actually kinda scary to even go across the bridge because the water was right up to the bottom and was just raging through. :wow:
I'm not sure how long its been since you've been to Decorah, but if you know where Dave Kelly Real Estate is (right along Hwy. 9, to the East of Montgomery) and the old bridge that they have set there - that was all flooded. Not deeply, but flooded nonetheless. Driving along Hwy. 9 there it seemed the river was everywhere.

Oh God - I just checked the NWS website and they are saying that there is the potential for another 1-4 inches of rain from Wed. night to Thurs. night. Crap.

[Hardrada]

17. In 1965 that same area by the Subway etc. was deep water

but then it was a Skelly station and there was some water in the parking lot of the Pub (now Roscoe's) so the situation is somewhat similar. The dike walls work pretty well but might need some inspection after this. In the pre-dike days low-lying Decorah got soaked on a regular basis and people conjectured if that wasn't the reason Water Street got its name! I get up to Decorah six or seven times a year and have friends in and around the town. All the rain is erodoing some of the backroads too. I hope they sandbagged around the Aase Haugen home also then.

[Debi]

13. Welcome to the Iowa DU Forum melissinha!

:hi: Everything in Iowa has been crazy this last month. Thanks for checking in - hope your grandmother is okay!

[Rambis]

11. I fully expect

to run into a old man collecting animals soon!

[rurallib]

14. guy down the street has a bunch of wood in his back yard.

[CoffeeCat]

18. Checking in from Des Moines (Ankeny) area...

This is nuts!

The media is being coy, although I think the city of Des Moines is very prepared and
professional.

If you run the numbers, things look very catastrophic. We just have to hope that the forecasted rain
fizzles out or misses us.

Saylorville lake/dam is the real bellwether in this area. In 1993, Saylorville levels
increased to a record 892 feet above sea level. Currently Saylorville Lake is at 887.84.
One week ago, Saylorville was at 864.49. :wow:

The massive amount of water that fell last weekend in Northern Iowa, is making it's way
to Saylorville Lake. The water is expected to run over the emergency spillway tonight and
into Wednesday--as that water from the North flows into Saylorville.

All water that flows over the emergency spillway goes directly into rivers that flow through
downtown Des Moines.

Furthermore, I just watched the forecast for tonight, tomorrow and Thurs. Several storm fronts
will move through, and are projected to dump 2-4 inches of rain in Northern and Central Iowa.

Holy buckets. Saylorville will be at 890 before the rain, and it sounds like Saylorville
will break the 1993 record of 892--after the rains from tonight, tomorrow and Thurs flow
into Saylorville.

This is unprecedented!

Stay safe and dry everyone...I hope we all keep each other updated.

It sounds like Palo, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Waterloo and many other areas will experience
record floods as well.

[Rambis]

19. Cedar Falls evacuating downtown?

somebody at work was talking about it-

[Debi]

20. Yep, mandatory evacuation from 6th street north and anyone on Main up to 9th

sandbaggers are reporting to the north parking lot of the UNIDome and being bussed downtown.

Ron Steel at KWWL keeps saying that water is up through the doorway at the Ice House Museum.

Insanity!!