Cedar Rapids Flood

Cedar Rapids Flood-0166, originally uploaded by Buck Cash.

Well folks, just by coincidence, I'm right in the middle of one of the biggest disasters going on right now; the Great Flood of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it is DEEP!

I got out on a long hike and had a look around today, and the downtown area is really screwed here. There's water over the roofs of some buildings, and that means that a LOT of people have lost a LOT from their lives here. In a word: devastating.

City Hall and the Courthouse are built on an island in the middle of the Cedar River. The island and all the bridges that connect it are completely under water at this point, with just the buildings sticking up out of it in the middle of the river, which is really something to see. I managed to get a few photos of it, though access is limited.

This is the home of Quaker Oats, and it's under water too. I got a few shots of that as well, though not great ones. Look close at my photos, and you'll see a train half submerged on a trestle that crosses the river. It was parked there to weigh down the bridge so that it wouldn't be swept downstream and do more damage.

You can see all the photos I've got so far by clicking the one above and following it to my Flickr account. I'll probably post some more to my blog later.

Meanwhile, I'm high and dry in my motel, and doing fine.