It has been a terrible time these last few weeks, but the flood waters are finally receding and residents are starting to view the damage. As I mentioned in one of my first blogs about the flood, we helped some friends of ours escape the flood waters. Here is the wife's account of those days...
Hi Everyone,
Below is a summary of the events that have transpired over the past couple weeks. It is mostly a blur!!! All in all, we are VERY lucky. We are all safe (family & cat included). We had warning to get our “important” stuff out. We only rent (sorry Bev). And we were going to buy a house this year anyway! Now we’re just jumping that ahead a bit…
Currently we are safe, sound, and dry in a 2 bedroom condo up in North Liberty. It works for now and even has a garage to store some of our stuff. Plus we have our own washer/dryer which is a must with an 8 month old! J They were willing to do month-to-month lease which works perfect for our current situation.
Hope this finds everyone doing well. Love you all – ASK
Thursday June 5th – Sandbagging started in our neighborhood (one of the hardest hit in IC back in ’93). It was thought, at the time, to use ’93 as a guideline for where to sandbag. I had a rather unique perspective seeing things from the public works end as well as the personal end.
Saturday/Sunday June 7-8th – Adam and I took turns sandbagging the houses along the river in our neighborhood and babysitting Katelyn. (BTW: Katelyn decided to roll from her back to her tummy for the first time as I was sandbagging the intake at the corner of Manor/Normandy in our neighborhood. Adam was nice enough to text message me!!!) Our landlords explained we were safe in ’93 and they just didn’t have vehicular access. So, we bought a little red wagon (radio flyer) to haul things up the back hill and stocked up on groceries b/c one thing was for certain – our only entrance was most likely going to be under water for awhile.
Monday June 9th – Again, we took turns sandbagging. Adam was supposed to start his new job at Optherion on this day, but I guess it worked out better that he started the following Monday! Still, we were hearing to use ’93 as a guideline with rumors of higher elevations. Little did we know, it would be our last night at 721 Manor Drive.
Tuesday June 10th – Predictions were starting to climb with possibilities of ’93 levels and above. Since our sump pump was running frequently, I was afraid we might loose electricity and get water in the basement. A lot of great friends helped us move things from the basement to the top level. A couple hours later, we called them back and moved some of our “important” stuff to friends’ places – just in case.
Wednesday June 11th – Predictions are continuing to get worse and my coworkers are encouraging me to get my stuff out. From what the Corp is predicting – we both agree… Adam and I get lucky and rent the last U-haul available. Again – we rely on fabulous friends to help us pack, move & store our stuff. We stayed with Adam’s professor’s family for which we will always be grateful. (They were probably happy to get rid of us, but actually I miss them now!) After using the U-haul, we loaned it to a neighbor who accidently hit another car with it – everyone was okay and from what we’ve heard from insurance agents, he’ll take care of everything! (Good grief! He was able to save his important stuff, however, so all was worth it and we would do it again anyway!)
Thursday June 12th – We returned to the house to get KC and grab a few final items. I emptied out the contents of our fridge – freshly stocked only a few days earlier. We made use of the Radio flyer wagon since we didn’t want to get our cars stuck down there. Good thing we did. Normandy Drive (along the river) had been evacuated late Wednesday/early Thursday and the sandbags around the entrance intakes blew late Thursday morning. Community Service representatives knocked on our door around noon and said we had 30 minutes to get out – mandatory evacuation! We packed our stuff, grabbed our cat, and traveled up the back way out of our neighborhood along side our landlord Bev and her son Trey. Very surreal! There were vehicles that got stuck in the neighborhood.
Friday June 13th/Sunday June 15th – We happily traveled up to NE Iowa to see April get married!!! My little sister… It was a great reason to celebrate and get away from things. We took KC with us and my parents adopted her temporarily until we figured out what was going on. It was slow go on I-380 which they closed about 8 hours after we drove across the reservoir. Seeing Cedar Rapids under water was horrible. Sunday we had to drive through Des Moines and across on I-80 b/c almost all of the bridges over both the Iowa River and Cedar River were closed due to flooding.
Monday June 16th/Friday June 20th – We played the waiting game and continued to stay with Rams & his family. Adam started his new job on Monday. Katelyn decided to get her first ear infection and the poor girl didn’t feel well Monday and Tuesday but that yucky pink medicine sure made her feel better. Many neighbors snuck into the neighborhood via canoes and boats to take pictures. Some coworkers took pics and news crews showed aerials. We found out water had reached about ¼ of the way up our front door but didn’t appear to reach the upstairs (split level home). We started searching for items stored at various places, registered for FEMA, researched our insurance which covers basically any natural disaster EXCEPT floods, canceled utilities, held our mail at the post office, and began to look for housing.
Saturday June 21st – We moved stuff around and obtained a new condo willing to rent month-to-month in North Liberty, a town about 5 miles north of IC. We stayed at Rams’ for one last night as we packed up our essential items. A neighborhood meeting was held at the local library where representatives from FEMA and the City answered questions as best they could. Many home owners were angry, sad, and/or numb from the blow mother nature had thrown. Several wanted someone to blame, while many others simply wanted to know what they needed to do next and how to do it. It is hard to fathom not being able to enter your home and once there not having water, sewer, electricity, gas… And many won’t for quite some time. For us, it was almost comforting to see the familiar faces of neighbors and new friends who had been strangers only a couple weeks prior. The mayor lifted the evacuation for foot traffic along Manor Drive only from 6:00PM-8:30PM. We stayed away.
Sunday June 22nd – Foot traffic alone was allowed in our neighborhood during daylight hours. Adam’s parents came down to help us move into the condo and watch KJ. Dan and Deb (expecting on July 3rd) watched KJ while we visited the house for the first time around noon on Sunday. We met with the FEMA rep who didn’t really have any new info for us, but took down some info in his little flat touch-screen computer. It was a mess! Walking in everything was covered with mud. The mold/mildew smell was so thick you could hardly breathe. The water was gone from the basement, leaving behind wet, muddy carpet, moldy walls, and trashed furniture. As we went upstairs, things seemed just as we had left it, but damp from humidity. I hadn’t realized how much we left behind in our frantic move – as shown in the pictures. But the reality of it is simple – it is just STUFF. We opened all the windows including the sliding glass door and basement windows. Adam and Lee pried open the garage doors (no electricity!) and rigged them to stay open a few feet when we left for air circulation. Our bikes were okay! And Adam even salvaged his golf clubs… Sunday night we stayed in our new condo for the first time.
Monday June 23rd – Vehicular traffic was allowed on Manor Drive so we rented a U-haul. Again, our friends pulled through and helped us move the rest of our stuff out of the house. Bev worked like a crazy woman alongside friends and family gutting out the basement – removing carpet, drywall, furniture… A lot of things were tossed to the curb for pick-up by the City solid waste department.
The reality of it finally hit me… We were loading up all this stuff into a U-haul, only to unload it into an empty garage in North Liberty, only to wait and see if mold starts to grow and then toss/move it all again! We will never live in mosquito flats again – a short ½ block walk to City Park w/ that fantastically cushy burnt orange carpet. What is nearly the end of our nightmare, is only the beginning for so many neighbors/families who lost so much more than us… They lost their family home which may or may not still have a mortgage ridding on it. Lining the streets were people’s belongings – pianos, photos, beds, clothes, furniture, appliances… Cars were out in the sun with their windows and doors open in an attempt to “air” them out. Families and friends were working side-by-side wearing rubber boots, gloves and face masks. Seeing all these people pull together is very overwhelming. And there are so many we will forever be indebted to. Thank-you to everyone who helped us – physically & emotionally. I truly feel we have been very lucky throughout this ordeal… Material items don’t really mater as long as you have your family and friends – simple yet TRUE! - ASK
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