The Flood Of 2016 (Part 2-The Crest And Week In Review)

Taking our mind off the flood at hand.  A few things happened over the weekend.

The Asian King Buffet has closed their doors.  I ate there a couple times in my trips to Dubuque and it was located near Moondog Music and Kennedy Mall.

The Chicago Cubs won their 100th game of the season, the first time since 1935 with a 12-2 blowout of Pittsburgh Monday Night.  Kris Bryant hit a Home Run and drove in his 100th RBI. Javier Baez hit a grand slam home run.  Kyle Hendricks continues to pitch great.

The Iowa Hawkeyes beat Rutgers 17-7 but looked sluggish throughout the game.  In the process they lost their best WR due to a broken foot in practice.  Despite winning, Iowa falls out of the Top 25 coaches poll and will not return.

Arizona State scored 31 points in the fourth quarter to come back and beat Cal in football 51-41 to start their season 4-0. The defense gave Davis Webb fits as he threw for 2 interceptions, one a pick six and fumbled at the end when ASU's defense got through to him. After Davis did throw a TD pass to bring Cal to 44-41, Cal's onside kick was then returned for a touchdown.  Game over.  Next up, a trip to Los Angeles to play the reeling USC team who lost to Utah 31-27.

Music passings: Buckwheat Zydeco, who gave Zydeco music some much needed popularity in the 1980s passed away Friday from lung cancer, he was 68....Jean Shepard, last of the hard core traditional country artists and had many hits for Capitol and later United Artists died Sunday at age 82.  Although she was married to Hawkshaw Hawkins, (who later died in that same plane crash that claimed him, Cowboy Copas and Pasty Cline), she was married for 50 years to current husband Benny Birchfield. She was a part of Grand Ole Opry and The Country Music Hall Of Fame for just as long too....Arnold Palmer is not a musician but he was one of the greatest golfers the world has ever known.  The King Of Golf died from heart failure, he was 87....Update on John D Loudermilk, word is now he too past from a heart attack last week. He was 82....Randy Duncan, star quarterback who helped Iowa win one of their two rose bowl victories in 1957 and 1959 passed away from brain cancer Tuesday. He was 79

Back to The Flood of 2016.

(photo: Karsin Leigh)

Tuesday:

The Cedar River crested at 21.97 feet at 11  AM today.  As you can tell, New Bo remained a lot drier than the folks on the right side of the Hesco Dam, (now called NO BO).  This has been typical of floods of the past (1929, 1961, 1993).

The owner of Tornados's Bar and Grill isn't too pleased of the actions of the city and he made that known during a KRNA interview.  He had a couple folks climb the Hesco Dam to give him some sump pumps to pump the water out, and the city wasn't too pleased with that and might file charges on that.  I hope not.  We're supposed to work together and trying to help one out, but this does reek of favoritism as the city tries to protect what they invested in bringing New Bo back to life.   While the river has crested, it will take a couple of days for it to go down and there's a possibility that the Cedar might invade from the storm drains below and the concern is ongoing pressure from the floodwaters that might weaken the earthen dams and Hesco Berms.   For Tornado's the sand bags seem to be helping keeping water out of the first floor, the basement is flooded for sure.

The Kickstand, a block away from Tornado's.

The other flooded area is in Time Check.  This is a photo not too far from Cooper's Mill/Best Western.

(photo: Lisa Stick  Wapsi River at Paris Iowa 9/27/16)


So far the Cedar River has not impeded my drive home on Hwy 30, but the river has filled up the flood plains and as well on hwy 13.  The farmers got lucky and got their crops harvested before the water seeped into their corn fields but west of the Cedar some farmer didn't get there in time. All the side roads of the Cedar, Cedar River Road, Ivanhoe Rd, Otis Rd, C St are closed due to water in the low lying areas of the road.   Over around Anamosa, the Wapsi continues to invade the golf course, and the back entrance to Stone City Access Park.  It's supposed to be cresting around 24 feet tomorrow.

Ruby's Pizzeria, my favorite pizza place in downtown Cedar Rapids has remained dry as well. They are next door to Cobble Hill winery/restaurant. Before the sand bags get put into place they put 2X4's up to level the sandbags.  This was taken last Thursday I do believe.

And the Wapsi River at Anamosa crested around 24 feet this afternoon.  So begins the slow returning of the river, still in flood stage but should be under 16 feet in time for Anamosa's annual Pumpkinfest this Saturday. Anamosa's crest of 22.76 feet is forth highest in history.

Wednesday

Photo: Nate Slaughter from inside of Tornados 9-27-16

They have started taking down HESCO barriers around the Linn Country Sheriff's building and flood clean up is beginning to start up river at Cedar Falls and Palo.  It looks like the swift heeding of warnings and sandbagging did help prevent the Cedar into being a major flood event.  It still remained the second highest crest ever but unlike the 2008 and 1993 floods quick action prevented more heartache outside of the usual water in the basement and seepage.  It also helped greatly that we didn't have the rains like we did in 2008 and with dry weather and windy days this too played a big role.  That said, The Paramount did cancel Grace Potter's show for Thursday Night.  There's really no way to even think about getting that show going, since the seats were removed Saturday.

(Photo: Kyle Dunn, entrance to Tornados 9-28-16)  Still looking dry due to sandbags holding back three feet of water

Despite what Ron Corbitt says about beating the river this time out, it's better to wait to see what happens. Victory can only be claimed if the storm drainage system doesn't failed and we still have at least two days to even claim victory.  The usual politician display of arrogance and smugness.  Credit must given to all that helped before and after the flood event.   Even the Anamosa folk managed to do things different from the 26.18 foot mess of 2008, building two earthen dams and drudge part of the Wapsipinicon which helped greatly.  Even Czech Village this time out didn't get flooded as bad. The Iowa Brewing Company only got some seepage in the basement area but that quickly dried out.  The guess is that the jams around the area will continue in another week or two at the latest.   It's not over, there's still plenty of water in Palo and the low lying areas but we won't have to worry about a 2008 repeat.  We can rest easy till the next flood comes.  Hopefully much later than this one.

Last Update:

The weekend looks promising.  The downtown bridges will open and Rumors continues on with the Popcorn Jam and The Paramount Theater will host their first show on Sunday, Celtic Thunder. This is the final update, the Cedar River is now under 16 feet, major flood stage, it should be back in its banks come Monday and we can finally put the Flood of 2016 to rest.  This time out, CR won out.  Thankfully it didn't rain at all during the week and that was the telling point.  Had this been during May or June, the story would be different. And with things drying down, I basically went to Madison for the last big bargain hunt of the year.  But that will be saved for the next installment of Record World.