'This is our version of Katrina,' Iowa resident says

[maddezmom]

NEW: University of Iowa's Art Campus abandoned to floodwaters

Des Moines officials give up on building berm of sand to hold off river

20,000 displaced in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Levee breaks in two places in Illinois



DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Officials in Des Moines, Iowa, ordered workers to abandon a temporary berm meant to block water gushing through a breach in a Des Moines River levee from reaching more than 200 homes.

"This is our version of Katrina," Johnson County Emergency Management spokesman Mike Sullivan said in Iowa City.

"This is the worst flooding we've ever seen -- much worse than 1993," when much of the Midwest was hit by record flooding. Watch how Midwest is familiar with flooding »

At the University of Iowa, whose campus is bisected by the Iowa River, students and faculty joined with townspeople and members of the National Guard to fill thousands of sandbags in the area known as the Arts Campus. But it wasn't enough.

more:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/14/midwest.flooding.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[halliburtonsux]

1. Yeah, but rightwing troll Tim Russert died, along w. the media coverage...

...of the Iowa flooding (due to global warming).

[stray cat]

7. Check out CNN or Fox and turn the channel from MSNBC

[sandnsea]

12. Are they carrying it?

I can't watch any of it anymore, it's so pathetic. If anybody is doing real coverage, I'll turn it on.

[stray cat]

14. They were covering it this morning when I left for work

[sandnsea]

21. Taliban, Iowa and Timmy

I'll let you know which gets the most coverage.

Iowa got about ten minutes and some live coverage, on to the weather I guess. We'll see if they go back to Iowa.

4 minutes of viewers' photos, and that's it. Oh, wait, FEMA is on the job, not to worry. :eyes:

Up next, Timmy.

And I'm changing the channel again because this just makes my blood boil.

[bigwillq]

28. CNN has had very good flood coverage today.

It's not all Tim Russert 24/7 on the other news shows.

I think it's justified that the NBC affiliates are pretty much non-stop with Russert. He did work for them. It'll pass in a few days. Tomorrow will probably be non-stop as well but it'll slow down soon.

Change the channel. That's my best advice.

[slampoet]

35. Fitting since Russert ignored and belittled the suffering of katrina survivors too.

[Swamp Rat]

2. k&r

[Rageneau]

3. Has any fundie preacher blamed the Iowa flooding on gay people yet?

That was what caused Katrina, you know.

[DU9598]

8. It was PRIDE weekend in Des Moines

It was cancelled as the downtown venue is under 10 feet of water. I guess God did not want us to have our celebration this year ... or it just rained to much.

[Debi]

24. Haven't you noticed that the only counties that haven't been declared disaster areas

are represented by Steve King??? :wow: Just sayin :tinfoilhat:

You obviously got home safe, is your house in any danger? Did you get it cleaned up from the last storms?

[cascadiance]

29. As I said in another thread, they PROBABLY WILL!

Iowa City has one of the highest per capita gay populations in the midwest, if not the country. It also is one of the highest educated per capita as well in terms of having college degrees, so they'll also probably blame it on the "intellectual elite" as well!

[Cleita]

4. So where are Bush and McCain?

During Katrina they were eating birthday cake together.

[ColbertWatcher]

16. If I recall...

...Admiral McCombover and Lieberman released a joint statement about Timmeh's death and Dumbya is drinking his way through Europe.

[bobbolink]

5. And can you imagine if those who are "displace" (homeless) were treated like this?

"I want to watch you pee into this paper cup to see if you have been taking drugs."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3314485

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE SOMEONE to say to you, "Come with me into the bathroom? I want to watch you pee into this paper cup to see if you have been taking drugs." That is what is happening in some shelters for homeless families in Massachusetts. Steve Valero, a lawyer at Greater Boston Legal Services, is indignant about this and has been telling shelters that it is an illegal practice. Some shelter directors claim they had no idea it was illegal. They thought it would be better to have all residents tested for drugs rather than singling out one person.

Valero said that he tells those directors they have it backwards. It might be legal to single out a person whom you suspect of being on drugs if that person was behaving as if she is drugged -- for example, if she seems completely stoned and is neglecting her kids. But to test everybody routinely is an illegal invasion of privacy.

One shelter resident said that she had to undergo drug testing every week for over 40 weeks, with a staff member watching her pee, even though she has never taken drugs.

************************************
Can you imagine the outrage if people left homeless from natural disasters were treated in this manner?????

This deserves our thought.

[CoffeeCat]

6. KCRG is reporting in Cedar Rapids...

...that the city of Cedar Rapids will be out of drinking water in 3-4 days.

Residents were asked to drastically cut water usage, because the water plant is only
operating at 25 percent.

Based on current usage, the entire city is without water in 3-4 days.

Hello? Where are you FEMA and BushCo? Are you preparing for an entire city of
100,000 people to be without water??? 20,000 people are also displaced due to these
floods.

Anyone? Anyone?

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/19941844.html

[1776Forever]

9. Obama.com has a link for donations

I think it would be good for Obama to take a trip out there soon. It would make the people feel better and show he cares while Bush and McCain eat cake!

Here is the link to the Obama site:



http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Being in Florida I went through 3 hurricanes in a few months back in 2004 and I know how hopeless things seem. I can only hope things will get better soon!

[cascadiance]

31. Used to work at KCRG some 25 years ago...

If you click on the "Watch Aerials from Cedar Rapids" video link on the right, there are three folks from KCRG looking at the aerial view of Cedar Rapids, which is pretty incredibly like Katrina. John Campbell, who is on the left, and who I personally worked with back then, even mentions in part of the video that their station is within a block of the visuals of the sea filled city visuals there. I'm wondering how they are getting to work. I wonder if there's anyone there or if they are microwaving or otherwise digitally transmitting the signal in remotely. I used to edit newstapes microwaved from Waterloo for the news show there. I'm sure their setup is quite different now than it was then.

To answer your question, I think either in the water video clip on that page or another story I read, there was a report of trucks with water from FEMA on their way to both Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Whether it will be timely or be able to reach their destination I guess is another question.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Has Bu**sh** said ANYTHING about this calamity yet?

Or is his staff still putting the DVD together?

[sandnsea]

11. Three Million Iowans are under water

The coverage of this is appalling. Debi is the one who told me 83 of the 99 counties are official disaster areas. We're losing a STATE this time, and still no competency from the press or the government.

:argh:

[hfojvt]

15. that same stat was on the news last night

or maybe I read it on DU. I see quite a bit of coverage, but we are also having our own flooding in Parkville, Mo.

[Debi]

25. Good luck! I hope you and yours stay safe

MO is going to get nailed too x(

[hfojvt]

33. thanks, we should be okay

So far officials here are calm. Last year they spent $40,000 on a canvas wall and moved everything to higher ground and then nothing happened. Parkville seems to flood every year but my cousins there are 100 feet up and half a mile away from the river. Here the river park has been flooded now since Monday, but only a little bit.

I feel like calling somebody from Mason City, where I worked for three years and my old Wisconsin home is flooding again too and I still have property there - nowhere near any rivers, but might have erosion damage. Maybe not though, since it is well wooded. They built a big dike and channel there, supposedly to handle a 100 year flood, so I wonder how that has been holding up.

[Skidmore]

13. Governor Culver just told us in a press conference that

"We will rebuild the great State of Iowa." Folks, we will rebuild a state, not a city, but a state.

[sandnsea]

17. Yes, a state,

I am so sorry this country is so fucked up that we're losing a state and nobody knows it.

[nam78_two]

18. K&R .nt

[napi21]

19. WHERE THE HELL IS FEMA? I asked this on another thread, and nobody

seems to know! I would have thought they would be eager to repair their horrible reputation from their last FU, but apparently not!

[Skidmore]

20. Chertoff gave a news coference from somewehere mid week and

he sent that designated flunky to walk around a bit. Help? Where is water to all of these towns without it? Falling from the skies to be boiled.

[sandnsea]

22. Third day of sun on the west coast

If our weather is moving your way, there is some relief in sight. But possibly no rain to be boiled.

[Debi]

26. He went to Waterloo

shook the mayor's hand and let everyone know that all they needed to do was get their paperwork in to FEMA by July 28th.

Keep your receipts!! x(

[barbtries]

38. is he serious?

what about the people who don't have the cash? what about people who are too busy right now trying to save what they can and their own skins to ferret out what he told the mayor of waterloo? paperwork in by july 28??? what if the paperwork arrives on july 29? tough shit, you're on your own? when your own has been wiped out by mother nature?

this administration is such a massive, massive fuck up.

i like to think ahead, to the movies that will be made. the "catch-22"s that will be written. hilarious stories of tragic history. masterpieces. great works of art. there is so much to glean from.

[napi21]

27. I don't understand. A flunky walking around isn't accomplishing

a damn thing! I think we all should try to call Cspan's WJ tomorrow morning and ask that question! I don't know how else to hit the media! Why am I asking ans they arent?

[BalancedGoat]

34. They have yet to approve Cedar Rapids for assistance.

I don't know about any other counties, but...

"Linn County has NOT been approved for FEMA assistance yet. FEMA and State officials will need to do a damage assessment first and that requires the water to go down. It is at best several days away, probably a week."
www.cedar-rapids.org

[bullwinkle428]

23. FEMA ain't doing SHIT!!!! It's nothing more than a community effort

to try and save what we can of this town (Iowa City/Coralville), and hundreds of us were working to try and save the big Marriott hotel built just on the riverbank a couple of years ago!

Classic Republicanism - "You're on your own!"

[Debi]

30. How are you??? What's it looking like around the campus?

Keep safe! :hi:


KCRG live streat for anyone who wants to see Cedar Rapids/Iowa City news:
http://www.kcrg.com/news/streaming/10476432.html?video=pop&t=a

[orleans]

32. i just posted an article yesterday about fema having stored all the

katrina donations in a warehouse in texas, and they were trying to give the shit away because the guy who owns the warehouse wants to tear it down.

people didn't get shit from fema in nola.

think iowa will be a red state come november?

[democrat2thecore]

36. WHERE is FEMA???? Another disaster and again - the leadership is AWOL -nt

[BalancedGoat]

37. Just heard they're bringing in water.

750,000 liters a day according to some guy on the news. They're also in preperation for recovery efforts, but those can't begin until the water goes down. Not really sure what else people expect them to do; this isn't like New Orleans.