Cedar Rapids , IA losing the battle with the river

It's very bad . The river is so high that the USGS gauges are completely under water . The gauges read to 28 feet above flood stage , flood stage is 12 feet . They really don't know exactly how much water is in the river basin but are estimating it to be 28.5ft as of 5:20pm today . Over 100 blocks of the City of Cedar Rapids is under water . The river isn't expected to crest until tomorrow sometime . The 500 year flood plain has already been exceeded . A rail road bridge was washed away with the rail cars that where put on it for stability . The infrastructure is in shambles . Electricity might be out for days if not weeks or months due to substations being submerged . So folks , watch your evening and morning news . Nobody has any idea how to deal with a catastrophe of this magnitude for this small city . Iowa City is next . This is going to last for a few days . To add insult to injury there's a severe thunderstorm moving towards the area expected to dump inches of rain . The river upstream is rising again due to more rainfall in Minnesota and northern Iowa so there's going to be a secondary crest in the next day or so in towns like Charles City , Nashua and Waverly . Plus another tornado in the west of the state hit a boy scout camp killing at least four . Flash flooding is happening all over due to these rains . ...Randy

You just can't stop mother nature, but at least the people in Cedar Rapids won't act helpless like New Orleans did. Or at least most of them.

with nothing sticking out of the water but a roof, one would tend to be helpless, I hope it does not get that bad for the folks in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. I live an hour east of there right and right now we are getting the rain they have had most of the afternoon.

Talked to a friend of mine in cedar rapids this morning, he had water ankle deep in his machine shop, moving the last of his equipment out today. He also had to move his daugther out of her house a couple day's ago the water was about a foot deep in her living room early this morning. Will be headed up there to help them cleanup after the water go's down.

Sad part is it is 2 different rivers that are flooding.

It's the Cedar river that is getting Cedar Rapids and the Iowa river is getting Iowa City.

It ain't good.

Gary

"Sad part is it is 2 different rivers that are flooding.
It's the Cedar river that is getting Cedar Rapids and the Iowa river is getting Iowa City.
It ain't good.Gary"

Yeah and those of us downstream after the two come together are getting ready for the worse. Daughter's boyfriend's family are here for however long. It will be a miracle if the levees hold. And it is raining.

Randy, I am originaly from the Mason City area, it is as bad up there as it has been in a century. That can only be part of your problems this year, I can only wish you in that area the best of luck. STAY SAFE!

New Orleans is more than three times the size of Cedar Rapids... Not really a fair comparison.

Its been droping since 3 this Thurs P.M. and channel 9 just showed it around 8this eve.

Sorry meant today Friday 13th