After we had our sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon we piled into the van and Pops’  Lexus to get a flood tour

I had seen the pictures, I had streamed KGAN on Friday, June 13, and I had heard Pops tell the stories…but it’s not quite the same to hear it as it is to see it.

This is my dad’s old office on 3rd Avenue, three blocks off the river.  See that 122 above the door?  The water line was right above the 122.  That’s some serious water.

The Paramount had just undergone a several million dollar remodel, and it’s now boarded up…just like half of downtown.

Dumpsters and sandbags litter the streets, six months after the crest.

Dad had this property listed before the flooding.  You can see the water damage on the bottom of the sign, but Dad says the water line was much higher than the top of the sign.  In any case, it was surreal to see one of dad’s signs hanging in a mucky building in an area of town that used to be bustling.

The most heartbreaking loss, to me, was the Cedar Rapids Public Library.  It was one block off the river, and the water surged and swirled through it, destroying the books and computers and magazines and microfilm and reference materials…but not the memories of afternoons spent there when we homeschooled.

This is the main floor now.  Empty.

For me, the library was the most upsetting thing to lose.

Across the street from the library was the Great Furniture Mart, an old-timey building that, well, sold furniture.

It was absolutely destroyed.  The water had battered it almost beyond recognition; all the windows on the first floor and a half were blown out (still) and bricks and mortar litter the sidewalks.

Joey walked in the front door (which was easy, the glass was still blown out) and took this picture.  Then we realized that someone was actually in the building (and there were signs posted to keep out) so we cleared out.

The sidewalk on both sides of the building looks like this – covered in random junk…some of it looks like it was from this building, some of it not so much.

After we toured the downtown destruction, Dad drove us to the most heartbreaking losses.  The ten square miles of destroyed homes, water damaged beyond livability.  Half of them were twisted off their foundations (and we have basements here in Iowa) and many had boards over their windows.

The water line on this home was up to the eaves.  Can you imagine?

Another home that had 8-11 feet of water in it.

Block after block of this…it makes me thankful for my home.

In the middle of the destroyed houses sat the old A&W.  We kids had loved this A&W because Mom and Dad had somehow convinced us that it was “really far away from our house” and we probably only went there once a year.  (It was kind of far away, maybe 15 minutes…)

The A&W will never reopen, Dad said they’re just going to tear it down.

You wanna eat there?

It still smells awful…six months later.  We had the windows up and everything and the icky flood smell snuck in the car.

Dad said the sidewalks were lined like this for months after the flood.  Now there are only certain neighborhoods that looks like this, mostly because people aren’t even trying to rebuild the homes anymore.  They’re so destroyed…it’s kind of futile.

Home after home had “unsafe” spray-painted on them.  (That and “You loot and I’ll shoot”.)

We enjoyed this one…somebody spray-painted a political statement on a house in an abandoned neighborhood.

It’s kind of hard to tell, but this is two houses.  The one on the right stayed in its place and the one in the middle got ripped off its foundation and floated into the house on the right.

We aren’t sure why this house has “snowman” painted on it on the bottom right…but it does.  I totally believe that it’s “unsafe” though.

I’m not sure what the water line was on these houses…but it kind of looks like it was above the first story.  This neighborhood will probably wind up being entirely torn down, the utility pipes were too ruined by the flood water and so the power company decided to not turn them back on again.

This bridge washed out.  It was weighed down with hopper cars full of gravel (which worked during ’93) but sometime Thursday or Friday in June the bridge just washed away…

Just to compare, this is the water level today.  The next picture is how high the water was on Wednesday night, a day and a half before the river crested.

The water eventually crested a lot higher than it is in the bottom picture; it was high enough to completely cover the bridges and swamp the entire downtown.  I’m not sure how high it got on that parking garage…but probably pretty darn high.

So…to give the Cedar River the what’s for…I ripped this piece of concrete off the parking garage and threw it at the river.

Just to kick it in the butt.

I felt better.