Memories of massive flooding in Iowa in 2008 – Marine One is pictured above during President George W. Bush’s visit to the area – have moved residents of eastern Iowa to start preparing for what could be devastating floods near Cedar Rapids.
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In Waterloo, 6 miles southeast of Cedar Falls, onlookers hailed three men as heroes after two of them helped the third jump into the raging Cedar River to save a marooned deer Saturday night.
The National Weather Service predicts the river will reach a crest of 23.5 feet in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday morning.
“We want you to today take care of your belongings and your pets”, Corbett said. “They’ll risk their lives for you”.
“They’ve been telling us it was coming for days”.
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Many communities are under flood warnings all the way through Friday along the Cedar River, which was at 97.7 feet at Cedar Falls on Sunday, nearly 10 feet above flood stage, the National Weather Service said.
Stacy Cataldo, head of the Montessori school, told television station KCRG that many remember how flooding damaged the school in 2008 and don’t want that to happen again. Most of her furniture was piled onto trailers to move. The benefit of that extra time was clear in the small town of Palo upstream where residents of more than 80 homes have evacuated.
In the southern Minnesota town of St. Clair, eight to 10 homes remained evacuated Sunday. “There’s not much you can do other than block some of the water so the water doesn’t come in so fast”.
Residents of about 100 homes in the town of Palo, about 10 miles northwest of Cedar Rapids, were ordered to evacuate, and residents of about 5,000 homes in Cedar Rapids itself – the state’s second-largest city – were advised to evacuate by 8 p.m. (9 p.m. ET).
The city has been preparing for a second major flood ever since 2008. This time around, “we’ve had notice, so that’s good, and people help each other”. But north of Minneapolis, parts of Highway 169 remained closed in both directors because of flooding.
Parts of southern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin experienced flooding over the past few days, but it appeared that most of the threat of major flooding had passed in those states by Sunday.
The district said Sunday that no classes will be held through Wednesday. Flood stage is 12 feet.
Still, the weather service said storms Saturday night into Sunday would bring more rain to the area.
Most family members were able to attend even if they had to take detours to get there. “There’s no place for the water to go”.
Cedar Rapids announced the evacuation decision to give residents time to plan, Corbett said. A curfew was also to go into effect Sunday beginning at 8 p.m.
In Waterloo, the Cedar River crested at 22.95 feet (7 meters) Saturday.
Fire Chief Mark English asked the curious to stay out of the flooded areas, noting that some heavy equipment used to build earthen dams and erect flood barriers has been hindered by gawkers.
Downtown Cedar Rapids is still expected to see flooding that will affect an estimated 1,500 properties.
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After the 2008 flood, about 1,350 homes near the Cedar River were bought out and destroyed to reduce the amount of damage that future floods could inflict.
