We dodged a major bullet.

Well, after the excitement from the weekend, it’s nice that things have gotten back to normal albeit somewhat. Where do I even begin?
I guess I could start on Thursday. It had been raining quite a lot for the past couple of weeks and water level had continued to rise pretty significantly, but no one was really too worried. The beginning of last week people started to get more concerned about flooding especially with 1993 in mind. Des Moines and entire state of Iowa was hit by a major flood that year and evidently it was a very scary period because power AND water was lost for more than a week. Since then, many steps had been taken to ensure something like that never happens again. The term once every five hundred years flood was tossed around quite a lot because we almost experienced it fifteen years after 1993.

Due to the nature of our agency, what we do and the people we serve, we have someone on staff who needs to be kept abreast with any impending disaster. Needless to say she was tuned to the television monitoring the situation very closely. Many different public and state agencies in collaboration with law enforcement officials came together to make sure everyone was safe and kept aware of the potential flooding. Water from the DM River was rising at a very dangerous level to the point they closed the bridges that went over it. If you’re able to go onto the website (www.dmregister.com), you can see some pretty amazing photos taken before and after the water rose.

Things kind of got pretty interesting on Thursday night with a lot of volunteers sandbagging in downtown DM. The river had risen to a dangerously high level and they were worried that the levee would not hold. I read the next day that there were people who sandbagged into the wee hours of the morning. Many people were just holding their breath and praying that the water would be kept at bay.

On Friday, we had the news on at the office and one of my site managers came in to drop some paperwork and told me that something is definitely going on because a lot of people from all the different agencies were scurrying around. They had taken over his building and it ended up becoming the command center. Whenever there was a press conference, all these people would cross the street and have a press conference in the building located just across. The 10AM press conference did not say a lot, but instead of coming on at 3PM as scheduled an emergency press conference was called for noon. That’s when the announcement was made that part of DM was under a voluntary evacuation notice. Mind you, this was at noon on a Friday and most people do not have the television on. As a precautionary measure the press conference stated that they wanted people to leave DM because the river was expected to crest much earlier than expected. I personally had no intention of leaving because I was far enough West of the river that I was not the least concerned. However, a colleague mentioned to me that there’s a strong possibility that if flooding were to occur, they would shut down the electric and water. That got me a little worried because I could be “trapped” in my apartment without water and electric for God only knows how long. At my colleague’s recommendations, I went back to my apartment and started packing some clothing and passport. I was confident the water would not reach the third floor of my building so I did not even think of packing anything else. I had mentioned to Joel earlier in the day that if I was forced to evacuate, I may end up at his house and he said it would not be a problem at all. On my way back to the apartment, I gave John a call and asked him if the priests’ residence had an open room. He told me not to worry and just grab my stuff. I’m glad I went back to the apartment when I did because they wanted people out of downtown DM by 6PM. Enforcement agencies wanted all the different companies to let their staff leave downtown in a timely manner. I feared for a mass panic in downtown and everyone wanting to leave at the same time. We found out that was not to be the case which was a good thing.

After packing, I went back to the office to work and then proceeded to work at the facility until 10PM. After I got off work, I was off to Dowling where I was to spend the night. John and I watched the television and they reported that the worst was behind us and the water by then had started to recede. John said that I was most welcome to spend the night, but I saw no reason to since the water was receding. I drove back to my apartment, stayed awake till probably midnight with the news on went to bed.

John and I had breakfast at Gateway Market the next morning and it was indeed a beautiful day. When I arrived at the market, I found out that part of the levee north of downtown had breached and water was flowing down. There was mandatory evacuation for the people who lived in and around that neighborhood. It’s kind of scary to think that I could have been one of those people forced to evacuate if the levee had broken closer to downtown. I guess the levee broke at around 3:30AM and there was nothing that could have been done. Everyone did the best they could to prevent it from happening. No lives were lost but there’s much damaged to property. The rest of the day was spent in my apartment watching soccer and catching on some dvds I had borrowed from the library. It was an extremely relaxed Saturday.

There’s nothing to report about Sunday. Things for the most part had returned to normal.

I truly meant it when I said DM dodged a bullet because it could have been much worse. I’m more concerned about Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. I know a couple of friends in Iowa City and had gotten in touch with them to make sure they are OK. Friend’s families live in Cedar Rapids and they too were safe. Those that I know all live on a hill so needless to say they are safe. When you look at the images of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, it’s just gut wrenching to see how devastating the flood was. Damages would amount to at least a billion dollars and we’ve been told that federal funding will be there for families affected by the flood. All in all I’m just hoping and praying that no lives are lost. It’s tragic and sad to think that properties are lost, but there’s nothing more important than one’s life. Towns will rebuild and some property will be able to be salvaged. Communities will come together and people will help and lean on another for support. It’s the Midwest way. As long as no lives are lost, I’m thankful. I mentioned this to a number of people that it’s a good reminder once again that we have no control over Mother Nature and whoever things that global warming has nothing to do with this needs to think again. Please do keep those affected by the flooding in your prayers because more than anything else, that’s what they need right now. For some, it will take weeks and maybe even months to recover, but at the end of the day, they will recover. Faith will pull them all through.