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History of the devasting flood which occured on June 13, 2008
Eastern Iowa is no stranger to floods. Its farm-covered rolling hills are crisscrossed by the Iowa and Cedar Rivers, substantial tributaries of the Mississippi river. The winter of 2007 had been harsh with unusually high levels of precipitation. By the time the heavy rain storms in early June started, the rivers were already bursting and the ground was saturated. A week before the water crested, the town began to prepare for what was coming.
Very few people could imagine it could be worse than the flood of 1993 that crested at 19.5 feet and breached the 100 year flood plain. As the week wore on, towns such as Waterloo, to the north of Cedar Rapids, flooded at levels above their 1993 crest, and it became clear that what was moving south down the river was going to be catastrophic. On the 11th, people in the five hundred year flood plain were forced to evacuate. The next morning, rescue boats were launched on Fifth Avenue South West; the pictures of very wet distraught residents being rescued from roof tops and second story windows made international news.
The power of the river famously collapsed a historical rail bridge. For days the the only way to cross the Cedar River was to use the I-380 Bridge. Day by day the projection for the flood's crest rose from the projected 22 ft to 28 ft, which still fell short of the final crest. The downtown had been under water for days before the flood hit its highest point. On Friday June 13 the flood finally crested at 31.2 ft. To get an idea of how much water that is, imagine a field goal post completely submerged in water.
In the neighborhoods closest to the river, the flood waters easily washed over stop signs and left water marks as high as the second story of some buildings. All told, some 5,390 houses, along with 1,049 commercial properties were damaged. The total footprint of the flood in the Cedar Rapids area alone was 10 square miles. The cost of the damage has been estimated at $231 million.
As the flood waters receded, the residents of Cedar Rapids surveyed the magnitude of the damage. It was clear that the clean up was going to be no small job. People came from all over the country to help muck and gut houses. Within 3 days, the Corporation for National and Community Service granted Cedar Rapids 100 AmeriCorps VISTA summer associates. Within two weeks, 60 of the positions were filled with people ready to get to work. There are currently 65 full time VISTA’s serving in the Cedar Rapids area. It will take years for the community of Cedar Rapids to recover from the devastation cause by the flood. Long after the images have faded from the news, there will be a need for volunteers to help rebuild and revitalize the town.
One Year Later
In an effort to measure the stage of recovery after the flood of 2008, AmeriCorps*VISTA members xvolunteered 235 hours to walk by 5093 homes in the flood impacted area. AmeriCorps*VISTA members did
visual assessments to determine what stage of recovery each home had reached.
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