Cedar Rapids Speaks: “Together We Will All Rise Above”

As the streets of Cedar Rapids start to get cleaned up, one can only ask themselves, how long is this going to take?  Well I think that is a question that is weighing on everyone’s mind, but nobody has an answer for it.

The now displaced and disfunctional downtown area of Cedar Rapids, IA is going to take months, heck, probably years to clean up and rebuild.  The clean up process in the downtown area is going a lot better and moving faster then what I thought it would.  Owners of small businesses are cleaning out their once flourishing businesses while larger companies are having some of their employees to come in and help with the clean up effort.

Companies are already talking about the rebuilding process and are hopeful to get their businesses up and running as soon as they possibly can.  As far as some of the people who worked downtown, or in other flooded areas of Cedar Rapids, they are jobless.  GazetteOnline.com wrote an article saying that there are approximately 6,000-7,000 people in Cedar Rapids now jobless because of this flood.  The big question is, what and where will they find a job???

Today President Bush is going to be touring the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas.  Bush is going to be talking with both cities officials about the multi-billion dollar clean up that is in store for these two cities.

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Flood of 2008: Photos of Aftermath In Downtown Cedar Rapids, IA

I went downtown this morning in Cedar Rapids, IA before I went to work and took some pictures of the downtown area after the flood waters have receded. It is bad…very bad. After being down there this morning, I can say that it is going to take a very long time to get downtown cleaned up. The Cedar River pretty much completely demolished the downtown area. Below you will find all the photos that I took this morning. Everyone braces themselves, some of these pictures are pretty sad…

I hope that you all enjoyed these photos. Like I said before, it is going to take a long time to get the downtown area cleaned up, but we will get there. WE WILL SURVIVE!!!!!

Aftermath of the Flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids, IA

The water is going down in Cedar Rapids, IA after the largest flood in the state’s history. You can now see the three downtown bridges above water rather than them being completely under water. Driving on I380 this morning, going to work, I could not believe my eyes when I looked towards the bridges and the streets of downtown. There is debris everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE!!!!! There are huge logs, railroad ties, bricks, glass, peoples personal belongings, household items, displaced cars, displaced homes, and much much more scattered all over downtown. The picture to the right shows a glimpse of what downtown Cedar Rapids looks like. This photo came from GazetteOnline.com. I think that it is going to take quite awhile for Cedar Rapids to get cleaned up. But as this city has done throughout this whole process, I am sure that everyone will come together and help each other out with the clean up efforts.

Click here to look at more pictures that were taken Sunday 6/15/08 of downtown Cedar Rapids.

Click here to look at pictures of tenants returning to their homes but only for a short period of time. Tenants were only given about 10 minutes to grab what they can carry out of their homes on Sunday 6/15/08. Displaced tenants thought that they would be able to get back into their homes today, Monday 6/16/08, but now the City of Cedar Rapids is not letting that happen. The homes are too dangerous for their owners to enter and all homes have to be checked out before people can re-enter them.

You may also click on any of the below links to look at any pictures from beginning to end of the Flood of 2008. All photos that you will see in the below links come from GazetteOnline.com.

Photos: Flood damage in Lamont

Photos: Flooding in Vinton, Manchester

Photos: Water rushing at Coralville Dam

Photos: (6) Thursday flooding photos

Photos: (22) Marengo flooding

Photos: Looking back: The Flood of 1993

Photos: Iowa River flooding off Hwy 965

Photos: (65) Iowa City/Coralville Area

Photos: Cedar Rapids flooding

Photos: Major flooding in Decorah

Photos: Monday: Iowa River flooding

Photos: Flooding affecting Monticello

Photos: User Submitted Photos

Photos: Iowa City/Coralville Area on Tue

Photos: Cedar Rapids flooding

Photos: Cedar Falls Evacuated

Photos: Regional flooding

Photos: User flood photos Tuesday

Photos: User Submitted Photos Wednesday

Photos: Flooding aerials Wednesday

Photos: Iowa River Flooding Wednesday

Photos: Cedar Rapids flooding Wednesday

Photos: Elkader

Photos: Cedar Rapids New Photos Thurs

Photos: Cedar Rapids under water Thurs.

Photos: Bridge Collapse

Photos: User Submitted Photos

Photos: Iowa City/Coralville Area Thurs.

Photos: Latest aerial flood photos

Photos: Iowa City/Coralville area Fri.

Photos: Boats in the Iowa, Cedar Rivers

Photos: Cedar Rapids flooding Friday

Photos: Iowa City/Coralville Area Sat.

Photos: Cedar Rapids flooding Saturday

Photos: Cedar Rapids wire photos

Photos: Iowa River crest

Photos: Regional flooding: Palo & Vinton

Photos: More Cedar Rapids Flooding Sun.

Photos: Iowa River flooding early Sun.

Photos: Downtown Cedar Rapids Sunday

Photos: Residents return in Cedar Rapids

Video’s of Cedar Rapids, IA Flooding

Here are some Video’s of Cedar Rapids, IA and the flooding that is occurring here… They projected the crest of the Cedar River to be 24.7 ft about 2 days ago. Now they are projecting it to be 32.2 ft and happening sometime today.

Associated Press Video of Cedar Rapids, IA Flooding

Aerial view of downtown Cedar Rapids, IA from the roof of the Crown Plaza

Downtown Cedar Rapids, IA on June 12, 2008

Bridge Collapse Pictures From Cedar Rapids, IA

The Flood of 2008 has caused and will continue to cause major damage in Cedar Rapids, IA. Here are some pictures of one of the railroad bridges that had collapsed into the Cedar River. The railroad company had placed railcars full or rocks and boulders on the bridge in hopes that the water would not lift it off of it’s support beams and float away, but the railcars did not work. Mother Nature won the battle with this bridge, but the city of Cedar Rapids is going to win the war!!!!!

Now the bridge that used to be in the air is under water in the Cedar River. If you have seen photos or seen video of where the bridge was, you can see that in the water, the bridge is almost making a damming effect. I just hope that all of the rocks, boulders, and railcars that fell into the river stay right where they are and not keep floating downstream. It would be another disaster if a railcar floated into another bridge, taking it out.

To view the pictures of the horrible disaster, please visit GazetteOnline.com or you may click here to go straight to the pictures.