Flood
When I heard the news, I couldn't believe it. Back to the days when I was there, it was three years ago. Three years, yet in comparison to my life time, is a long time. Although the life back here is so busy everyday that I rarely take some time thinking over all those memories containing both pain as well as joy, the momories and the past are still there, hidden deeply somewhere in the bottom of my heart and will never ever decay. Now that I have been away for 3 years and I ,after all, do not belong there, I still have lots lots of feelings boiling over when I heard such a similar name on TV or in radio. I know I was only a passer-by.I don't know what I can do to help with my little force. What I want to say is: Iowa, good luck!
NBC News and news services
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - This city had hoped the worst would be over by Friday, but instead the Cedar River keeps rising and has now swamped more than 400 blocks and forced thousands to flee. In Des Moines, meanwhile, officials issued a voluntary evacuation order as the Des Moines River neared the tops of levees.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said the damage to his state could cost billions of dollars. The damage in Cedar Rapids alone was a preliminary $737 million, Fire Department spokesman Dave Koch said.
Around the state, scores of bridges spanning nine overflowing rivers have been swept away or weakened.
“I have real concerns about our agricultural sector. I have toured the state and seen the devastation to our crops,” Culver said.
Iowa is usually the top U.S. corn and soybeans growing state and is a major producer of hogs and cattle.
Culver has declared 83 of the state's 99 counties as state disaster areas. Nine rivers are at or above historic flood levels.
Cedar Rapids officials earlier said 100 blocks were underwater, but that number rose to at least 438 city blocks in downtown by midday Friday. There was more flooding outside of downtown, but authorities didn't know how widespread it was.
Officials early Friday had hoped the Cedar River would crest Friday at about 31.8 feet, but NBC's Kevin Tibbles later reported from the city that officials now fear it won't crest until the weekend, with a predicted crest of 33 feet.
The river was at 30.9 feet early Friday. In a 1993 flood, considered the worst in recent history, it crested at 19.27 feet.
"We are seeing a historic hydrological event taking place with unprecedented river levels occurring," said Brian Pierce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport. "We're in uncharted territory — this is an event beyond what anybody could even imagine."
Patients terrified, thankful
At the Mercy Medical Center in downtown Cedar Rapids, all 176 patients were evacuated to other hospitals in the region. The evacuation started late Thursday night and went into Friday in the city of 124,000 residents.
Water was seeping into the hospital's lower levels, where the emergency generator is located, said Dustin Hinrichs of the Linn County emergency operations center. "They proactively and preventatively started evacuation basically guessing on the fact they were going to lose power," he said.
"Those poor people. They looked half-terrified and half-thankful that they had someplace to go where they could finally rest and be cared for," said Sonya Thornton, a technician at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, where many of the patients were taken. She was called into work at 2 a.m. to help with the evacuation.
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