Ken the Silver Nosed alluded a few days ago to my plight here along
the river in Iowa City. I've switched my subscription to digest mode.
I'll see if I can hang on that way. I've already seen expressions of
concern on list. I appreciate those and I'm sorry if I am unable to
respond to them individually. It doesn't mean they are not meaningful
to me.
Where to begin? I've been through this once before in 1993 and lost
nearly everything. When we rebuilt our home, we raised and built an
entire level under the main living floor for a total of 9 feet of
elevation. This flood dwarfs the previous, which had apparently
dwarfed anything in memory and was the first instance of flooding so
significant that it went over the emergency spillway of the reservoir
4 miles upstream. River waters will run through the emergency
spillway for a number of more days, perhaps a week, dropping the river
levels ever so slowly. It only falls about .75 feet over a 24 hour
period. Levels will drop a little more quickly as the pool at the
reservoir shrinks, but it's a horribly slow process. The reservoir
protracts the flood when it can't prevent it. I expect to be out of
my house for weeks to months and services will not be easy to restore.
The City has been more active this time in forced evacuation because
of the scale of displacement and will no doubt not let us return as
early as I might like. But even that is jumping too far ahead since
we are one or two thunderstorms away from being right back where we
were or worse. Everything is dependent upon reasonably good weather
from here on out.
My mother moved into a condo across the road from us a couple of years
ago. When we took on water, we moved in with her temporarily. Within
a week it became clear that she would also need to evacuate. I feel
terrible for her. Our house since 1993 has sort of been designed to
take water and we have some flood insurance because we are still
paying down a mortgage. She has no flood insurance and is on a very
fixed income. She'll be back in her place before we will and clean up
and fix up will probably be straightforward. I hope. Much will
depend upon FEMA and how it responds.
The entire city of Iowa City, and particularly the University of Iowa,
is in dire straits. My work involves bringing in the freshman class
via orientation programs in the summer, and we're clueless about how
to do this yet as the student union is full of water at the moment.
The arts complex (music and art and art history) are all in water
despite heroic efforts by town and gown to protect these buildings.
There is some question as to whether there will be a fall semester!
So it's not just a matter of few eccentrics like myself who choose to
live on a river getting a bit wet for a day or two. This is an
unmitigated disaster I'm afraid.
Having been through what I had thought was the benchmark of all floods
in 1993, I know a little about the psychology of these things. The
outpouring of concern and support will diminish by inches just like
the flood waters. The real work lies ahead and it will be harder to
keep the good intentions mobilized as people try desperately to get
back to normal lives if they can. I am trying to think through how to
establish networks, focusing my first attention on my neighbors.
We've never been organized in any way and I don't think it has served
us very well to be quite so independent.
I got my favorite Zuikos out of my house and into my mother's place.
While hers is also flooded now, I'm hopeful it will be possible to get
into it in a week or so and open it up. The stuff is high and dry but
her house is closed up and the lenses are out in the open air. They
will probably need to be cleaned. It is possible that they might have
been better left at my home, but one makes the best decisions one can
under these circumstances.
I haven't been able to do any photography. It's too much like
photography at a funeral. I am recovering from a cold which started
up during my last day in my house as we were moving the last things up
to the second level. Stress levels were off the charts during that
time. I am better now, though I take something to sleep through the
night (didn't take it last night and paid the price). I expect to
begin to get back to a program of regular exercise as soon as this
cold is a little more cleared up. We've been offered a house to live
in and I think we will move in next week. I have been struggling with
the current circumstances emotionally because my kids are staying
elsewhere with friends. I don't need this or that house, but I need
my family and friends.
We got a bit of good news tonight. Two of my neighbors eluded the
police and got to our properties by boat I told you we are an
independent lot). One of them entered my home and went up to the
second level (our living level). He called me afterwards and let me
know that we did NOT get water on the second level. This is very good
news for me as it validates all of our efforts in raising our home,
not to mention the preservation of so many possessions now stored all
over the floor, including boxes full of all of my books from my
graduate school days, clothes, tools, and furniture. There is an
immense amount of cleanup and fixup to do in the coming weeks and
months, but now I feel that there is a very valid reason to do it when
the time comes. I think I'll sleep better tonight (but I'm still
taking that pill).
Best regards,
Joel W.
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