Better Days

I found some pictures I wanted to share with you of the flooding around Iowa this week. Things seem to be calming down, except for in Iowa City where they're not expecting the river to crest for another day or two - and for other areas south of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, bracing for the high waters to make it to them. I'm sure all affected, and yet to be affected could still use our prayers.

My sister's basement was nearly full - about a step from reaching their main floor. They'd moved most of their belongings up to their second floor, but still could have lost a lot with flooring dry-wall, appliances, couch and piano that couldn't go upstairs. Their garage also only had a few feet of water in it as well, so they're breathing a sigh of relief right now. Still some hurdles with inspection, and clean-up though, so they could still use your prayers.

Seems like there's clean-up going on all over the state, and probably will be for months after seeing these pictures from local media:

My sister's house is about about 9 blocks from the curve in this road.







Dad moved his RV from this campground just in time - don't see him in this picture. My other sister's babysitter lived right along here.







Up and downstream from where my dad had been parking his RV this summer (I took swimming lessons when I was a kid at the pool in the middle picture. Lots of water around, but probably no swimming lessons going on for a couple weeks!):








Iowa City area (note - I think these pix were from a couple days ago, so things are worse now than they were. The first is I-80, closed East of Iowa City - detour is 110 miles! The second is a U of I dormitory - lots of the campus is under water now. Third is the emergency spillway next to the Coralville Dam, and then a fairly new hotel and convention center right along the river.):








Des Moines area (water going down, but levees being watched closely - one failed early this morning):
This first picture is of the emergency spillway. They'd raised the 6-foot gates on the top to hold extra water in and give downtown more time to prepare. This was as they were lowering them to save them. They'd served their purpose, but the water was going to go over them anyway.




This is the riverfront amphitheater downtown.
No ball games this weekend either. The Des Moines and Racoon Rivers meet just beyond the right field wall. **Update - the 10 pm news said they didn't play last night but did play today, but with no spectators because the city asked them to lock them out - not sure why because the evacuation was voluntary. The evacuations in Des Moines (except the neighborhood where the levee broke) have now been lifted, so they're hoping for a crowd for tomorrow's game.