Massive floods hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Lake Delton in Wisconsin GONE!

Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Eastern Iowa on the Cedar River. Pop. 124,000. My old theater stomping grounds from 1992-1997 before I moved to Los Angeles in April 1998. Flooded. Look at that water. This was taken on Thursday. Somewhere in there is the Cedar River - can't tell where though. And somewhere in there is the city. According to friends I talked to - it's bad. And I was just there a little over two weeks ago. Everything was perfect.

The governor declared 89 of Iowa's 99 counties to be state disaster areas. A levee broke, apparently and the Cedar River poured over its banks Thursday, forcing the evacuation of nearly 4,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets. I'm not sure exactly if one levee broke or the whole dam thing failed or if there was just so much rain that no matter what - CR was unprepared for this outcome.

According to my friend Megan, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & the African American Museum have just roofs showing. Czech Village is totally under water. The Library - flooded. I know Megan and her husband, Steve, from the theater. They own a jewelry store downtown - last they looked there was 5 feet of water on the main floor of the jewelry store. Downtown is evacuated. The river separates CR into two halves basically, and all the bridges leading from east to west and vice versa are closed off.

Downtown CR.

Theatre Cedar Rapids - my old theater - preparing for the worst. Tried callling twice but they too busy busting their asses to save the theater. All these pictures were taken by Megan around 5 p.m. CST and the water levels are most definately higher. The Paramount Theater - a historical landmark where I had my theater debut is downtown and likely realizing the same fate as most of downtown CR is.


National Guard troops are out patrolling the streets. Officials estimated that 100 blocks were underwater in Cedar Rapids. The flood level there is about 12. Two inches an hour. It's at 31.1' (as of Friday, 11 a.m. CST). I weathered the Flood of 1993 and it was NOTHING like this - 19'. Nothing like this has happened in over 150 years. The cop shop dispatch moved to Marion (adjoining town just north east of CR). Hospital patients moved. Prisoners from the Linn County Courthouse/jail moved. Smulekoff's Furniture store - sofa's floating out of the windows. So I started calling and emailing theater people. Nina's fine - the theater's meeting to figure out a game plan once the water subsides. My buddy Joe said water power stations and substations are flooding and closing down so fast that much of the city is without power - which affects electricity and water supplies. Called Nick earlier and he was leaving to go get a back-up supply of water somewhere. My friend Jen was sandbaggin' last night. Emailed Janelle S. - status quo. Another close friend, Jim, is a Linn County Sheriff and I can't even get ahold of him. Talked to Dean & Leslie - Jim's parents...they said it's bizarre, and that you can't comprehend it unless you're there to see it first-hand.

Associated Press shot of downtown CR. Iowa City, about 10 miles south (where the Big 10, University of Iowa is situated) sits near a river and they're flooding as well. I've got theater friends there too. Rip & Janice, Pat & Sandy, Ron & Jody. I better call them, too. Dubuque Street floods when it drizzles, for Christ's sake. From photo's I've seen it is submerged. I'm assuming Riverside Theater's (regional theater where I worked) Shakespeare Theatre - which is separate from the main theatre and right off Dubuque Street - is not faring well. Everyone's working together though to get through this - and both CR and IC will rebound. At some point.

Funny though how there's always one joker in the pack. Caught this quote in a story on Fox or AP. "I believe that this is God's way of doing things, and I've got insurance, so I'm not worried about it," said Tim Grimm, who was forced to leave his home in the city's Czech Village area (of Cedar Rapids). Talk about a grim attitude

What a dick. I mean, he could have said , "I know we'll weather through this. My house is OK and I hope all my neighbor's home are fine." He could have said - well, he should have just kept his mouth shut. I hope the son-of-a-bitch finds out he let his flood insurance lapse. Prick.

So far everyone I know is OK. But for the families of these four kids, it was the worst possible news. A tornado hit a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa, killing four Scouts - Josh, Sam, Ben and Aaron - and injuring 48 others.

"Please, God, stop the rain. Let the flooding subside. And let the people clean up and get back to their lives. Most of all - let them be safe"