The flooding in the midwest is just amazing. I have been to many of the places that are now underwater when I lived in Iowa City for six months. I hope they can save Hannibal, MO.
Are any of you from that region?
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AlphaFactor
Hmmm. Any idea if any hurricanes are being predicted for the Gulf Coast regions surrounding Louisiana?
capelza
I have a shirt tale step son in Iowa and have relatives in NE NO and SE IA, but hopefully they are east of any flooding, though if they are talkin about flooding around KC then who knows.
Crap, the tornados that touched down in SW MO last month and killed a bunch of people was in my home county. My mom beat me to the puch and called to let me know she and everone else was okay.
We have had the coldest June on record and seven snowplows were working on Snoqualmie Pass three or four days ago. Weird weather. Though I do have to say, when I worked for OSU’s Marine Science Center, the climate model floating around in 1991 predicted something like this in relation to global warming.
Anyway, I hope that the flooding doesn’t get any worse for those folks.
Chris
I’m from madison, wi and while I have never visited Lake Delton up in the Dells I know many people who have.
If you haven’t seen the videos of Lake Delton draining into the Wisconsin River on youtube you should really check them out.
and
Chris
Well that didn’t work.
Here and here are the videos I tried to embed.
Also check out this tornado photo
Erin in Flagstaff
No weather disturbances in the Atlantic.
What is scary: two huge disasters happened on Bush’s watch:
–New Orleans hurricane.
–Terrorist attack on New York city.
The other big disaster feared by many is a major earthquake in San Francisco. Hell, we’ve had the two happen, plus just the overall disaster that’s happened to this country the last eight years, it seems like the triple disaster might just happen.
You know, I never used to be so negative. And may nothing bad happen to any city, anywhere. It hurts to see Mother Nature inflict her damage.
Zifnab
Countdown to this being blamed on gay marriage in California in 3… 2…
Thursday
Gotta say, I am NOT used to hearing about frikkin’ tornados in Ontario!
Paul
I live up in the Twin Cities, which is a little further North than the flooding, but we hear lots about it. And the Cedar river, overflowing in Cedar Rapids, is also giving trouble further north, in Austin. (home of SPAM).
skippy
i’m waiting to see this flood water work its way down the mississippi thru st. lou and into n’awlins.
W.E.B. Adamant
No, not from the Midwest, but I was in Arkansas with over 55 of its 72 counties had disaster-proportion flooding. I hope the government’s response to the Midwest is better than what happened in Arkansas. Expect more formaldehyde poisoning if they don’t.
The Other Steve
We were down on the weekend of May 25 for my cousin’s high school graduation in Newhall. I was hoping to be able to stop at Backbone State Park on that Sunday afternoon. It’s my father’s families stomping grounds, up near Strawberry Point just north of Cedar Rapids about 60 miles or so. Family used to own timber alongside the park.
Anyway, after watching the weather reports we decided to skip it and just head home, as they were talking about strong storms in the afternoon.
So we head up 380 to hwy 20 and then over to I-35 and north.
About 4 hours after we passed through, a F5 hit the town of Parkersburg which is just 5 miles north of hwy 20 west of Waterloo, and then it dropped back down around Manchester which is about 10 miles from Backbone state park.
I’m glad I changed our plans, as we probably would have been trying to leave backbone around the time the storm hit.
Anyway, ever since that May 25th storm, it’s rained every day. and not just drizzles. They’ve had some downers with 8 inches of rain in one night.
The Other Steve
We were just there two years ago. Took the Duck rides, which I recall go down the Wisconsin River a bit and then across Lake Delton and back.
My brother lives in Fond du Lac with his family. Their house is up on a hill, but they have been getting a lot of flooding around their area. The highway near their house was closed, and his wife’s car got flooded while she was at work. Came out and the parking lot was a foot of standing water.
The Other Steve
Wow, that’s an awesome shot.
Martin
Mom lives in Des Moines. They’re fine, but sent me a bunch of photos from their plane sightseeing this morning (stepfather had the day off on account of his building being flooded). Lots and lots and lots of square ponds where corn should be. You think gas prices are bad, wait until you go to buy Fritos later this year.
passerby
Wow. Literally awesome.
Hang tough Wisconsin and Iowa, hang tough.
Hope lives are safe, the rest, is just stuff.
It’s just material stuff. Hang tough.
T
LanceThruster
I’m not from there nor have I ever been there but heard this guy was: “Shoeless Joe”
Sorry to hear that bad things are happening there while Chuckles McNumbnuts is still in charge of things. That can’t be good.
Mike D.
I tried to re-read _Life on the Mississippi_ this winter and just couldn’t get into it. References to New Orleans popped up like cluster bomblets in an overgrown vacant lot. I stuck to it until Twain finally reached the mouth of the mighty river and started bragging about the levees and that was it.
I said “fuck this” and flipped way ahead and landed on a page where everyone is jolly and headed out to Lake Pontchartrain for a picnic. Okay, it was a fifty-cent secondhand paperback, but I still feel bad about the three-pointer straight into the trash can. I used to fucking like Mark Twain and now it’s like we broke up in public and I never got my CDs back.
b-psycho
^^^^Born & raised in Iowa, right alongside the Mississippi river.
My dad called earlier talking about how bad the flooding is. Finds watching other peoples fancy cars float away amusing.
Corvus9
I live in Iowa City, actually. I’m fine, I live on a hill. Most of downtown Iowa City is flooded, including much of Highway 6. When I was driving to work yesterday, people were out sandbagging the fronts of businesses. When I got off I had to find a new route home. I haven’t actually seen the flood waters yet, as the entire area is closed off, and it’s not really the kind of thing you want to get close to. Still, I think down by the river it is pretty bad, and Cedar Rapids, the nearest Metropolitan Area, is completely drowned.
jrg
No, but Raleigh was enveloped in a cloud of smoke yesterday. When I went outside, I went back inside to make sure my house was not ablaze. Turns out 60 square miles of eastern NC is on fire. It’s probably God punishing us for the Baptists.
LanceThruster
Took time out from punishing the Boy Scouts for keeping out gays and atheists, eh?
(Sorry, gallows humor – I really feel bad over the scout tragedy, just wondering why Hagee isn’t giving God the credit for this like he does for gay hurricanes, 9/11, and the Holocaust)
passerby
Skippy, not to worry. The MS river levees in LA are pretty stout, don’t know about St. Lu.
There is a structure upriver from N.O. know as the Bonnet Carrie Spillway. It can be opened, as it was earlier this spring, to shunt water from the MS River into Lake Ponchartrain in order to lower flood stage water levels and manage spring thaw and other such events.
The spillway is rarely ever used but, this past spring it was necessary. It is used sparingly because each time it’s opened, it leaves a considerable amount of silt, build-up.
T
Bobzim
This open thread is all wet.
Haven’t heard much about this this evening. Seems like it would a big story.
joel hanes
I’m from Mason City IA, where the waters are receding and drinkable municipal water service has been restored after only a few days outage.
The home folks got off a lot easier than Cedar Rapids, where the Cedar is nineteen feet above flood stage.
Glenda
I’m originally from Iowa, and have lived in Cedar Rapids for the last three years.
What is happening throughout central and eastern Iowa can’t be adequately described, as this flood is just busting all the historical flood records.
On Tuesday, my family traveled from Cedar Rapids to Ames, and we were amazed at that time with the amount of farmland flooding that we saw. When we returned home Tuesday night, the horrible flooding was just getting started north of us in Cedar Falls/Waterloo.
In Cedar Rapids, the federal courthouse, county jail, public library, police department, and main metropolitan transit station will probably all be lost. Volunteers moved all of the books in the library to the upper level, but it’s not clear at this time whether they have been saved of not.
Historical downtown building, including the Paramount theater, will also probably be lost. Businesses and homes will also most likely need to be condemned after this. Major factories, such as Cargill and Quaker Oaks, among others will not be able to work for some time.
One of the hospitals had to evacuate all the patients to other places throughout eastern Iowa, leaving only one hospital in the area, and that is running on backup power.
Travel is absolutely impossible throughout the area, as almost every road has areas that are deeply flooded and impossible to pass. The twenty minute trip from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City now takes five hours, as you must go north on 380 to Waterloo, go west to I-35, south to Des Moines and I-80, then back east to Iowa City.
There are entire small towns, such as Palo, that are entirely underwater with only the roofs of the houses poking out of the water.
For those towns, such as Cedar Rapids, that are badly flooded, there are extreme water restrictions in effect. No laundry, no dishwashing of any kind, no showers or baths. We’re being asked to use hand sanitizer rather than soap and water to wash hands. Water is only being allowed for drinking. Most of the pumps have been flooded, so only one quarter of the normal volume is being pumped in Cedar Rapids.
The price of corn will skyrocket, as the farmland that is not under water is so waterlogged that the corn is rotting in the field.
My family and I have been lucky, as we do not have any property damage, except for my brother’s rotting crops, and he has crop insurance for that. Too many people in this town are going to lose their homes and businesses, and that is tragic.
Corvus9
I work in a retailer store. In Iowa City, they still haven’t called a boil order on the water, but they have in all the surrounding towns, so everybody keeps buying bottled water and gallon jugs in anticipation. We have to completely restock the shelves several times a day. In fact we have run out of Ice Mountain, I think.
Thelonius
I’m sure Scalia will blame it on Anthony Kennedy.
Mike D.
You have to be a special kind of stupid to be a feeding-tube wielding, fag-bashing thumper and not get the vague idea that the God of the Old Testament isn’t way pissed at the United States these days. Fortunately, there’s no shortage.
For what it’s worth, I got flooded out of my house. Amusing. Like _Shawshank Redemption,_ you can’t help marking a level on a tree downhill and saying, “Okay, fun is fun, but it can’t get much over that point. God isn’t gearing up for a second Deluge or anything; He won’t let it get out of control.”
Two hours later you’re standing on your garage pitching pennies into Lake McDriveway and saying, “I am so pissed at God right now. First thing tomorrow, I’m on the phone, cancelling my subscription. If you think about it, quite a bit of my personal stuff is eight feet underwater, along with all the electrical outlets… so let’s not think about it, right? Rainy days are a total drag.” Plink.
Jess
Well, we did have that pretty big one in 89 during the reign of Bush I. Maybe someone’s trying to tell us something?
LanceThruster
Sorry about what you’re going through, Mike D. I know how crappy I felt having valuable stuff get ruined from a leak in the roof that soaked a bookshelf unseen from behind. At least it wasn’t *under*water. Hopes things improve substantially for you after it dries out.
Jess
Hey, me too! Well, I grew up there–left when I was 16 and never went back. I lived right by Vilas Park. Very cool town. I’m hoping to go back and visit sometime soon, if it’s still there…
LanceThruster
Rereading Mike D. I’m thinking “got flooded out” is past tense unless that lucky SOB has some sort of waterproof wifi.
HOMER SIMPSON: There’s ‘Lucky’ over there with an iron lung to do all the breathing for him and here I am using my lungs like a chump!
protected static
Not any more… Now I just have earthquakes, tsunami & lahars to worry about.
(Unless they venture out to lower-lying areas, none of my friends & family who remain in the metro-StL area are in any real danger of flooding…)
AnotherBruce
Congratulations on your move, protected static. I recently went to a disaster preparedness seminar to find out that Washington state is the #1 place in the U.S. for natural disasters. In addition to the three hazards you named, we’re also good for frequent windstorms, flooding and yes, fires because we often have a lengthy dry season. Don’t think that will be a problem this year though.
IndyLib
I live in Kenosha County, WI. Not so bad here, some minor flooding in the east part of the county, but nothing except soggy ground this close to Lake Michigan where we live. We just had to put up with 3 solid days of tornado watches and warnings – which in my house meant my 3 boys complained loudly about living here and stayed in the basement for 72 hours. We just moved here from California in September where they were used to 2 kinds of weather – cool and warm. They are not well pleased with 4 seasons of changable weather. One of the tornadoes that went through Wisconsin in January (January!!???!!, ferchistsake!) touched down about 4 miles from our house and scared the bejeezum out of them.
At least we have a chance to see some real compassion and leadership in response to this mess – from a commenter at TPM.
Go MUP!!
passerby
Glenda, thanks for the first hand account. Heartfelt wishes of safety and luck.
Luck, especially with the insurance assessors.
T
Geoduck
Unfortunately, that’s not true. Lots of rivers in western Washington state regularly flood; back around Christmas there was a bad one south of Olympia, the state capital.
And the weather as a whole has been wonky; this is the coldest June on record.
HeartlandLiberal
Things are not as bad here in South Central and Southern Indiana, but getting close. Many cities have been badly flooded, e.g. Martinsville. Main highways have been flooded so badly they were temporarily unuseable, including Hwy 37 running south from Indianapolis. About a week ago I saw reports that in a broad line running right across the area we are in in South Central Indiana we had received a foot of rain in just a week’s time.
The most devastating damage right now, as reported in this morning’s newspaper here in Bloomington, The Herald Times (also fondly known as the Horrible Terrible), is the impact on farming. At this point 80-90% of corn and soybean plantings have been wiped out. And the ground remains either water logged or under water. This is going to have serious consequences on agriculture production and the economy.
What irks me the most is that the patterns of weather we are seeing happen causing this are without any question right in the middle of the predictions and models that for decades have predicted what the consequences of rapid climate change and global warming will be on weather patterns across the United States.
And yet what percentage of the American people still choose to live in la la land and a state of denial (and I do NOT mean Egypt)?
Maybe the rising cost of gas will finally accomplish what logic and reason could not. I note they are suspending routes and cutting back schedules for the Indiana University bus system, which is an excellent public transport system to help control and eliminate too much car traffic on campus. As an IU staff member, I even get a picture ID that lets me ride the Bloomington City buses free of charge. Why the cutback on number of bus runs? Well, did you know it takes 120 gallons to fill one of those buses up? And have you seen that the price of diesel is about to hit $5.00 a gallon? You do the math!
jeff
I’m not from Iowa but I did go to college at Kansas State which got trashed by a tornado on Wednesday. I’ve been going through the photos on the web and have seen a lot of the buildings I had class in took serious damage (20 million on campus overall). Not sure about any of the places I lived.
Krista
That IS weird.
We’ve got wildfires. Not anywhere near where I am, but about 3,000 people around 20 minutes east of Halifax have been evacuated.
Ripley
I’m north of Cedar Rapids and we’re flooded pretty badly, too. Fortunately(?) it’s mostly crop land, with minor residential damage. The infrastructure took a beating around here, though.
I uploaded pics of the area to my site. We’re quite fortunate compared to the southern towns and neighboring states.
Jasonconga
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91426753&ft=1&f=1039
Sorry, I didn’t read the link about embedding things correctly, I was too lazy, don’t get mad.
Anyway, if this is truly an open thread, then I’ll fill you in. The link is an NPR interview with my favorite band, the Black Crowes and they do a few songs acoustic and some interesting moments in the interview part.
I did my absolute minimum of work here in the Black Forest of Germany, grade 5 exams from a Business English university course I have, vaccuum and clean off my desk. Now I’ve got the laptop on my lap, a fiew of a 700-year old church off in the distance outside my bedroom window. Much love, ya’ll…
protected static
Yeah, I was speaking mostly about my most immediate risks… The treasurer of the local “Team River Runner” chapter (a kayaking charity for wounded vets and their families) was one of the Green River fatalities a couple of weeks ago.
We keep ‘go bags’ for 4 people in both cars, as well as a larger one in the house.
protected static
On a related note, Jim Macdonald, a regular at Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s Making Light, has a great page dedicated to go bags and emergency prep.
Chief
I’m from Keokuk, Iowa–about 60 miles north of Hanniabal. The dam at Keokuk was not closed because it sits up higher than along the other sections of the river. Hannibal sits down lower in a plain and I was told by family that flooding is occuring in Missouri but not as badly around a majority of Hannibal. Unfortunately, this happens every six to five to seven years along a portion of the Mississippi–another sign that most of the old infrastructure that came out of the New Deal is now an Old Deal and ready for replacement. Do we really need to endure more Katrinas? The primary issue isn’t the flooding–its that the government should know by now that during a rainy spring or fall season, the potentional for flooding will increase due to the lack of adeequate leveees. I’d like to see Obama address this issue of poor infrastructure for all 50 states.
KB
Our address is Cedar Rapids, but we live east of the city proper, out in the country on Highway 30. While the Cedar River is up to and over the west and south boundaries (Hwys 13 and 30) of our neighborhood, we’re one of the lucky ones: Our house sits on high land above 30. The water has inundated the road just below us, so it’s quite a view. CR city officials just announced a water emergency (the irony is not lost on us) – no water use for anything but drinking. Again, we’re very fortunate – we have a private well AND electric power (after 4 days without). Despite our good fortune, I’m starting to wonder what might be coming next – I’m a native of both Parkersburg and New Hartford, and have lived in the Cedar Rapids area for some forty years.
Mark Gisleson
I live in St Paul now, but here’s a picture of the tornado that touched down less than two miles from my brother’s farm in northern Iowa.
More rain expected in Minnesota tonight, and that means more flooding in southern Minnesota and Iowa next week.
Punchy
Having graduated from Iowa, i keep lookin at the pics in horror that all these buildings and landmarks that I remember have all gone underwater, or are close. at least the Ped Mall is up on the hill, but i fear the EPB and Art buildings and even Main Library (and the Union, too) may get really wet.
And there’s like 1 way in/out of IC at the moment, so traffic i’ve heard is a nightmare. DAMN…..
joel hanes
I hate to disagree with someone named Chief, but IMHO the problems don’t stem from inadequate levees. No levee is high enough always (as the residents of Cedar Rapids are discovering — the river is what, eleven feet above the previous record?) and levees actually tend to exacerbate the high water problem until they ultimately fail.
We should stop building in flood plains. That’s why they’re called flood plains — because, eventually, they’re gonna flood, no matter what we do.
joel hanes
This is a great time to plug one of my favorite books, The Control of Nature by John McPhee.
Mike D.
Thank you, but it was a long time ago. I basically lost eight pecks of teenage poetry and artwork, an ancient family photo album, my music collection and my computer, along with a closet full of casual clothes. Guess which one hasn’t been more than satisfactorily replaced.
“Fuck it! Before it fucks you!”
RSA
No need; Hannibal gets away at the end of every novel/movie. And don’t call me MO.
powdermonkey
I grew up in Ames, and my parents and 2 sisters are still there. Supposedly this is much worse than the ’92 (’93?) floods that knocked out city water in Des Moines for over a month.
While my family is ok (so far), My heart goes out to all those people who are suffering.
During the last big flood back home I worked for a local TV station and spent some time in a helicopter helping to shoot flood damage. You wouldn’t believe how weird it is to watch all that stuff floating downstream. I saw houses, propane tanks (imagine what happens when they hit something solid) farm animals (live and dead) and even a coffin.
wonkie
I’m from Ames, too. Moved away in 1979 and haven’t been back.
When I see pictures of those drwnded farms and homes, it just makes me feel ill.
In the long run Iowa does need to restore the wet lands and the meanders and oxbows that used to soak up high water. Channeling and wet land destruction aren’t a cause of flooding but have changed conditions so that any flooding that happens will be worse.
Delia
And did you see, via the GOS, that Obama is using his website to organize volunteers in the flood affected areas and spent today sandbagging in Quincy, Illinois, the latest area where the river’s rising?