every little bit
My fellow Iowans have struggled this past week against mother nature. For my parents living in Iowa City, they're safe and up high (thankfully). But as my Dad put it, things in Cedar Rapids (just 20 miles north of them) looked like the 500 year flood. Monday was equally bad in Des Moines (picture above), though I haven't heard how the downtown is recovering.
Dad's found some humor in all this, which I suppose is all you can do when you're helpless. The other night he called me with Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" playing in the background. Some people cope with wine, some with rock.
I heard yesterday on NPR that the Red Cross is out of money. Their director said that the group has $0 in their checking account, but they're still helping. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but levees are bursting down the Mississippi and the need must far exceed the resources.So move some things around if you can and contribute. And throw up a few prayers too. Them Iowans are good people, you know.
posted by Ally @ 2:08 PM
4 Comments:
Welcome back to the Blogosphere Ally!
And thanks for helping raise funds for our friends, family and fellow Iowans.
I visited last week to see the damage in CR first hand. Our son and daughter live there, as well as two of Deanna's sisters. We used to live there as well.
I had NEVER seen anything like it. Block after block after block, as far as the eye could see, people had virtually all of the contents of their houses, from couches to dishwashers to clothes to pictures, to artificial Christmas trees, to musical instruments piled 6 to 8 feet high, 6 to 8 feet deep along the curbside. Heavy construction equipment was coming along, scooping it up and hauling their lives away. These people lost almost everything, including for many, many, many of them, their homes.
Our kids were very lucky to only be minimally impacted by the flooding. Thank goodness!
However I must say the psychological impact of the flooding and the accompanying devastation may yet prove to be a formidable foe for anyone in the region.
So to those who read Ally's amazing missives here, please do scrape together a few dollars if you can. Those folks up there need all the help they can get.
Clean up and rehab costs for Cedar Rapids alone are roughly estimated at 1.5 Billion dollars, not all of which the government will provide.
Thanks Ally for leading the charge on helping these people in need.
Bruce
PS. Lest we forget, the agricultural fallout from all the water is estimated conservatively at 3 BILLION dollars.
B - it breaks my heart too. I hadn't heard the updated damage figures yet, but that sounds about right.
As I told you today, those Iowans pull together. I loved hearing the stories of people who took in your kids and helped them out. Gives you faith in the middle of the chaos.
i was driving through indiana during the storms and floored by seeing wheat fields underwater. It was unlike anything I've ever witnessed, and this coming from a guy with New Orleans in his home state.
Here's a link to pictures of the University of Iowa campus when it was underwater. Some of it still is.
It was very devastating.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uinews/show/with/2593855716/
B
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