Historic Flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

PlusHistoric Flooding in Cedar Rapids, IowaHistoric Flooding in Cedar Rapids, IowaThe Associated PressThe Cedar River poured over its banks here Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving much of downtown underwater. (June 12)Steve Shriver/owns flooded business "Something is collapsing over there.""What do you think it is?""I think it's a parking garage." (TRACK) CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA IS FALLING APART AS THE CEDAR RIVER SWALLOWS THE CITY. IT LOOKS MORE LIKE VENICE, ITALY THAN THE MIDDLE OF IOWA. Steve Shriver/owns flooded business"The river is literally running through buildings." (TRACK) STEVE SHRIVER OWNS AN ORGANIC LIP BALM BUSINESS LOCATED IN DOWNTOWN. AND HIS PRODUCTION ROOM IS IN THE BASEMENT...SEVERAL FEET UNDER WATER. Steve Shriver/owns flooded business"we have a million sticks of lip balm sitting in the at building waiting to be shipped out, that we cannot reach." (TRACK) DESPITE DAYS OF PREPARING FOR THE FLOOD, NOTHING WAS ABLE TO STOP THE WATER FROM RISING INTO DOWNTOWN. SOT:(Tom Aller/Pres., Interstate Power and Light Alliant Energy) "Water has risen to the point where all of downtown is really under water. All of our steam system is down and under water so the major customers of steam, such as quaker oats and folks like that are out. And our electric system is out as well." MARK CARLSON/STANDUP CEDAR RAPIDS CEDAR RAPIDS IS OVER RUN BY AN UNIMAGINEABLE AMOUNT OF WATER. THE CEDAR RIVER IS TAKING WITH IT ANYTHING IT CAN AS FLOOD WATERS CONTINUE TO RISE. (TRACK)The city has put an evacuation order in and that's helping because the workers are not coming downtown." The amount of flooding in this area is unprecedented and no one knows how long it could take to get back to normal. SOT:(Tom Aller/Pres., Interstate Power and Light Alliant Energy) "As far as what we're telling our customers, we're talking about an indefinite outage here, for sure." Steve Shriver/owns flooded businessNats "deep sigh" IT'S JUST TOO MUCH TO LOOK AT FOR SHRIVER. HIS LIVELY HOOD IS UNDER WATER. Steve Shriver/owns flooded business"There is no insurance to cover it. We need some sort of help from FEMA." FOR NOW, ALL ANYONE CAN DO IS WATCH THE WATER RISE. MARK CARLSON, AP, CEDAR RAPIDS, IA.

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: June 13, 2008 at 3:55 am
Author: AssociatedPress

Length: 01:48
Rating: 4.72
Views: 54102

Tags: cedar  cedarrapids  flooding  historic  iowa  rapids  

Video Comments