Iowa's capital swamped by Midwestern floodwaters

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, June 14 (Reuters) - A levee holding back rising floodwaters broke and swamped Iowa's capital on Saturday as officials across the U.S. Midwest reinforced levees, helped displaced residents and cleaned up the mess left by the region's worst flooding in 15 years.

The region got a break from the torrential rains and high winds, but some states braced for more rain, which was forecast for Saturday night.

"Thankfully we're having some dry weather right now," said Alan Foster, a spokesman for Iowa's state emergency management office. "But with everything that's flowing ... we're still just hanging on."

In Des Moines, Iowa's capital, a levee holding back the Des Moines River broke overnight, sending water rushing into a neighborhood near downtown.

In Cedar Rapids, the state's second-largest city, the waters of the swollen Cedar River crested overnight. But more than 400 city blocks remain waterlogged and 24,000 people have been forced from their homes.

In Quincy, Illinois, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama joined volunteers and filled sandbags to hold back the Mississippi River. Republican presidential candidate John McCain issued a statement expressing sympathy for the flood victims.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN14403554

[barbtries]

1. i clicked on the link

and the top story on the right was "mccain seen as better for economy"

are they serious???????

[Joanne98]

3. They're retards

[ixion]

2. another broken levee, another feather in the Army Corp of Engineers cap

:(

[flvegan]

4. Obama is getting his hands dirty amongst the people, McCainus yaps.

Please make a note of it, voters.

[Submariner]

5. It's just mother nature trying to replenish her riverine floodplains

with fresh silt and soils like she has been doing for eons. This should not be news to these people who insist on living on a floodplain. Even the COE has it's limitations.

[emmadoggy]

6. Gee, thanks for your warm compassion.

Rivers, creeks, and streams are plentiful in Iowa. Back up far enough from one and you are bound to bump into another. There are over 71,000 miles of rivers and streams in Iowa.

You do realize, don't you, that in Cedar Rapids, for example, the flooding reached BEYOND the 500-YEAR floodplain. The 500-year floodplain, as it was exlained on our local media, means you have a .2% chance of flooding in any given year. TWO-TENTHS OF A PERCENT.

People who have lived in homes for decades without so much as a drop of water in their basement, are now being flooded out. It may be "just Mother Nature doing her thing", but it is having a very devastating effect on thousands of real people. And it is not just people in towns and cities being effected - many, many farmers have lost their crops. Hell, even the farmland that hasn't been flooded is having a not so great growing year after a cold and wet spring caused a big delay in planting. And THAT is going to have a big impact far beyond the Iowa floodplains.

Then there is the damage to infrastructure in the state. There are literally HUNDREDS of roads and bridges that have been damaged in this state. Should we not build roads and bridges to cross the rivers either?
Even if your home or business hasn't been flooded, just getting around has become monumentally challenging.

So please try to have a little compassion for the toll this is taking on many thousands of people.

[Submariner]

8. Excuse me for sounding insensitive

Didn't mean for it to come out that way. Sorry for the pain and suffering.

When I read the OP I momentarily shifted into work mode, which for me is floodplain studies that I've done over 30 yrs.

When you read numbers like .2% probability, you got to take those with a grain of salt.

Each year I watch coastal or rivers edge homes slipping away, or homes on slopes sliding away. It's all part of erosion and deposition processes we cannot control. The COE is trying to hold back the Mississippi River from changing course into the Atchafalaya basin like it has done regularly every 5,000 years. Ain't gonna happen. The river control structure and levees will only stand so much pressure, and what will be called a 500 or 1,000, or 2,000 year flood event will come and change EVERYTHING in southern Louisiana, that will make the Iowa flooding look trivial at best.

So I was commenting strictly from a science and engineering point of view. It's just plain risky to live anywhere in a coastal tidal or riverine floodplain, and not expect these floods to happen every 20 to 50 years, or so.

[emmadoggy]

10. 20 or 50 years, huh?

Seems to me that Cedar Rapids has been around a lot longer than that and they have NEVER seen anything even remotely CLOSE to this level of flooding. The previous record flood stage, set in 1929, was 20.0 ft. This crest hit 31.12 ft. My understanding is that, *in general terms* flood records are usually broken in small increments - a few inches, MAYBE a foot or two. But more than half-again as much as the entire old record?? That's obliteration.

Of course, I understand that those 500-year probability numbers are just that - numbers, estimates, guidlines. But what it boils down to for most people is that the chance of you ever being flooded during your lifetime are slim to none.

So, since you're an expert of floodplains, please explain to me just how far from rivers, creeks and streams should everything be kept? Because I really don't understand it - and I mean this seriously. Where does the flood plain end? This flood went beyond the "500 year" floodplain. So do we go to the 1000-year floodplain? What if that isn't far enough? How far does the 2000-year floodplain reach? And how much real estate are we left to live on and farm after all possible floodplains are eliminated from usability?

[Tashca]

7. Nice...

Very nice mixture of Ignorance AND arrogance!!

I am so impressed!!

[joanmj]

9. Some waters are now receding...

and extensive damage is seen and many of these folks had no flood insurance(as I have many relatives the in D.M., I.C. and C.R.). Where will FEMA be in the recovery and clean-up? They seem to already be offering low-interest loans. HAAA!:argh: