It's not been a quiet week in my home state. The floods that have drenched Iowa and other parts of the Midwest have been called 500 year floods, which means the chances of such a flood occurring is 1 in 500. Bad odds this year, folks.
Many of you have heard the news, so I'll give you first-person observations from my family who live near Nashua, Iowa, the northeast corner of the state.
My parents live on a farm on a dead-end road. A creek crosses that road and frequently during the spring, they are stranded on the farm for a day or two when the creek rises across the bridge.
This year, there have been many, many days where the creek was across the bridge. One day, a FedEx man came to deliver a package of vitamins to my mother. She met him at her side of the flooded creek. Mom said the length of flooded road was about two car lengths. She asked him to throw the package across the waters. He did and mom walked it home. Dad noted that while none of the vitamin plastic containers were cracked, the invoice was a little damp.
The Cedar River in Waverly flooded far out of its banks, overflowing onto city blocks in that town where my alma mater Wartburg is located. Friends tell me many of my professors have water damage in basements. My sister Lorna's friend Bill just graduated and bought a house near the Cedar River. She helped him move his possessions to the first floor, but it was no use. The water flooded everything.
So Bill and his younger brother Bob are temporarily living at my parents farm with my sister. Mom says she doesn't mind the extra cooking and Dad likes the help on the farm. None of their fields were affected by the flooding. My sister reports Bill is waiting to see what kind of emergency help he might get from FEMA.
My sister works at Subway in Waverly, which only had minor water damage because employees (my sis included) sandbagged for hours. The Burger King wasn't so lucky. The photos of city blocks and blocks underwater are shocking.
Thanks for listening...and for your prayers for those who were more affected than my parents.
2 comments:
Hey, Lis--I've been thinking of your family this past week. Thanks for the update, and I will continue to hold them in my prayers.
You're not referring to Bob & Bill Wallin are you? That would be kind of "freaky" if you were.
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