500 year Flood Plain Evacuation In Cedar Rapids Iowa Today

 

Update 6/14/08

      This is the picture on the front of the Cedar Rapids Gazette from Friday the 13th 2008

     The flood water crested at 11 feet above the previous record. 

       Iowa weather has been in the national news now for a couple of weeks.  We had an F 5 tornado hit the North Central part of the state two weeks ago. 

    Here’s a chart I pulled of the Internet describing tornado sizes:

The Fujita Scale

F-Scale Number	Intensity Phrase	Wind Speed	Type of Damage Done
F0	Gale tornado	40-72 mph	Some damage to chimneys; breaks branches off trees; pushes over shallow-rooted trees; damages sign boards.
F1	Moderate tornado	73-112 mph	The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.
F2	Significant tornado	113-157 mph	Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light object missiles generated.
F3	Severe tornado	158-206 mph	Roof and some walls torn off well constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in fores uprooted
F4	Devastating tornado	207-260 mph	Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown off some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5	Incredible tornado	261-318 mph	Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel re-inforced concrete structures badly damaged.
F6	Inconceivable tornado	319-379 mph	These winds are very unlikely. The small area of damage they might produce would probably not be recognizable along with the mess produced by F4 and F5 wind that would surround the F6 winds. Missiles, such as cars and refrigerators would do serious secondary damage that could not be directly identified as F6 damage. If this level is ever achieved, evidence for it might only be found in some manner of ground swirl pattern, for it may never be identifiable through engineering studies

      Today on the local radio, they were calling for evacuations in Cedar Rapids Iowa (about 45 minutes from us)   They said  they were evacuating people on the 500 year flood plain…here is an excerpt from the local weather website: 

Flood Warning

WGUS83 KDVN 111546 FLSDVN FLOOD STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 1046 AM CDT WED JUN 11 2008 ...A HISTORIC HYDROLOGIC EVENT IS EVOLVING. ..UNPRECEDENTED RIVER CRESTS ARE EXPECTED... .RECORD FLOODING IS EXPECTED ON THE CEDAR AND IOWA RIVERS IN EASTERN IOWA. THIS IS A SERIOUS SITUATION.

 RIVER FORECASTS TAKE INTO ACCOUNT PAST PRECIPITATION...AS WELL AS
 PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS EXPECTED 24 HOURS INTO THE FUTURE FROM THE
 FORECAST ISSUANCE TIME.

 SAFETY MESSAGE...IF YOU ENCOUNTER A FLOODED ROADWAY...TURN AROUND
 AND FIND AN ALTERNATE ROUTE. TURN AROUND...DON/T DROWN.
____________________________________________________________________________________

    I've gotten 1 phone call and 3 e-mails from some of you checking on us...I feel 
loved    
We're fine,   We live on the 2nd highest point in our county..so if the waters get 
this high  then we're all in trouble (Think Noah)
     On a personal note, we've been able to work most days.  I am in construction as 
some of you know.  My next project is shingling an existing home.  With rain in 
the forecast, I'm not in a big hurry to start. 
    Our home phone connection isn't working right now.  I think it is due to the
excess water in the ground.  This has happened before...so if you want to get a hold
of us, drop us an e-mail or call my cell.  I'm posting this mostly to let those of 
you that know us, know we're fine, amd things are pretty much normal. DM
____________________________________________________________________________________
Update 6/13/08
I (DM) ran to Cedar Rapids today to pick up some roofing material. The Menards 
store is a few miles away from the flooding.  I called a head to make sure they 
were open- yep, open for business.  Wasn't sure what to expect.  I noticed just 
a couple of things as a result of the flooding-  they had portable generators 
for sale (in stock) and just as we were leaving the electricity in the store 
went out..their portable  generator kicked in a couple of seconds later.  Other
 than that, things were normal. Water is still rising in the Coralville Iowa area.
 In fact, on the radio today they said they expect the river down there to rise
 another 5 feet.  The weather forecast is predicting next week to dry off and 
cooler...so I scheduled a shingle delivery for Tuesday after lunch.  I guess it
 really depends where you are located, even in Eastern Iowa.  If you're stopping 
by the blog after googling this flood and have any specific questions- don't
hesitate to ask. DM