If I could review the Weather we have had so far this year...
This Winter we had record snowfalls throughout Iowa and Wisconsin. And we wouldn't just get snow. It would almost always be an event where there was freezing rain that would turn the roads into ice rinks and then pile with several inches to feet of wet sticky snow. Then it would get blustery cold and freeze the entire mixture to a glacier. As a result, many towns and municipalities actually ran out of sand and salt and many streets were ice covered for most of the winter. I believe that we actually had snow on the ground through a good part of May. My mother in law would always be commenting, "As long as there is snow in the ditches, there is more snow to come."
I started recording daily temperature and rainfall for the National Weather Service at the end of April of this year. I recall that at the beginning of May, we were still hovering around the 40's for highs some days. I think most of May was 53 degrees all the time. There were some late frosts this year and it was hard for the plants to get blooming. The leaves on my trees even curled up from frost! How often does that happen?
So after a long wet winter, we were all ready for a nice summer. Then the rains came, and came, and came. It is actually raining again right now. The water table is as full as it will ever get by now. It has been saturated completely. Now whatever rain that falls, has to find its way downstream. Now the streams are filling up and thus, so are the rivers they flow in to. I think tonight is perhaps the fourth time this year that that Riverview Road pictured in the previous post was under water. There is a huge sand-bag dike holding in the water from the rest of that south part of town. On the North part of town, the engineers think they have found evidence that there is starting to be sings of seepage through the levee. The residents in those parts of town are being encouraged to play it safe and evacuate.
This is being mimicked all over Iowa, in fact Cascade has it relatively easy. As of now, there are only one or two houses with water. Towns like Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Waverly, Decorah, Vinton, Iowa City, Dyersville, Manchester, Des Moines, and the list goes on just have blocks of water and more water is on the way.
Let me show you some pictures from around here. This first video is a creek that runs north of Cascade. Normally, the creek is literally a step across. You can see here that the "creek" has swollen to quite the river. It is only a few feet from topping the bridge we are standing on and it hasn't crested yet.
Here is an idea of how high the water was over at Seth's parents farm earlier today. You can see how the waters scoured new rock out of the bank.
We walked out to the pasture about a half a mile or so to survey the scene. New banks were scoured and entire trees were uprooted and thrown aside. There were entire limbs of trees in the corn fields. This water moves fast, but this is only the source of the big floods that are hitting places like Cedar Rapids. There are a lot of little creeks like these that are swelling the bigger rivers.
Cedar Rapids sits on the Cedar River and is the big news now. They are experiencing a 500 year flood. The Cedar River is expected to crest on Friday an entire 12 feet ABOVE the previous record crest set in 1993. This is well over 20 feet above the normal flood stage. Already a railroad bridge is out and one of the levees broke. The city is in a state of emergency and there are mandatory evacuations. I even just heard that one of the hospitals in town are no longer accepting patients, because they are getting water too. One of the sub-burbs of Cedar Rapids is a little town named Palo. Palo is the home of a nuclear reactor. The entire town of Palo is underwater, except the reactor. The reactor sets a good 5 feet or so above the projected crest. It will be able to stay on-line as long as the telephone company doesn't go under. If that happens, the reactor has to scram.
But you know what is cool? No one is loosing their heads. Sure people are scared and devastated that they are loosing everything they own, but they are able to get themselves out of harms way. There are no reports of people on their roofs waiting for someone to save them. There are no riots. In fact there is alot of neighbors helping neighbors all over the state. Busses are driving through towns recruiting sandbaggers. People are going to Sam's to buys as many snacks as they are allowed to, to give to those helping and to those displaced. It is truly amazing. I'm proud that there is still some common sense around. I know there will be a need for Federal Aid, but I have a feeling it won't be the demand and outrage that we have had in the past with some other certain cities being flooded.
Take a look at the area where I went to college near Waterloo and Cedar Falls
It give a good picture of the magnitude of the flooding that most of Iowa is experiencing.
Now on top of the flooding, we have had a few tornado incidents as well. I'm sure everyone has heard about the EF-5 tornado that hit Parkersburg (also just north of Waterloo and Cedar Falls, we are talking mere miles here). There was also a tornado in western Iowa that hit a boy scout camp and killed 4 boys there. I am astounded by the power of mother nature today.
Check out this video that an ATM camera captured of a house being simply dematerialized by the Parkersburg tornado.
I'll leave you with another amazing story about that same tornado. What if you didn't have a place to go? What if you were in your car when a tornado came your way?
Like I said, it really is hard to not get nervous about the weather around here. The National Weather Service is predicting rain for most of the weekend and next week as well. Sometime this summer we still need to grow some crops too!
Help your neighbors when you can! For now, Michelle out.
Because Jaren has a thing for Thomas the Tank, Seth and I decided to splurge on the boy and buy him a TON of Thomas the Tank. Before today, he only had one train.... now he is set for life. 
