You have to be living in a cave to not know of the devastating floods we've been having in Iowa over the past couple of weeks. Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and a number of smaller cities have seen tremendous devastation in the past few days. And cities south of the Quad Cities, such as Burlington, Keokuk, Quincy and Hannibal, are bracing for tremendous flood crests along the Mississippi.
Cedar Rapids and Iowa City have had the lion's share of media coverage from around the nation. Both cities have been debilitated over the past few days. Here's a picture of downtown Cedar Rapids courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Here is a picture my friend, Bill Hesson, sent along of the Iowa River inundating the University of Iowa in Iowa City. I'm not certain where he got this picture, but it's pretty impressive showing the water levels along the river invading up to 16 buildings on campus.
This is the second major flood we've had in the Quad Cities this year. That doesn't happen very often. For pictures of the first flood, click here.
This flood is bigger than the first one back in April. The crest ended up being 21.3 feet - 6.3 feet above flood stage, but 1.3 feet under the record 22.6 mark from the Flood of 1993. Davenport didn't have anywhere close to the flood damage other Iowa cities have had - mainly because the Mississippi came up more slowly than the Iowa and Cedar Rivers. Preliminary forecasts had the Mississippi topping out just under 20 feet in Davenport, but a nearly 5-inch rain we had last Thursday night helped push the level to over 21 feet.
I went down to take some pictures of the flooding along River Drive and the Davenport river front on Monday. This is at the corner of River Drive and Iowa St. with Lock and Dam 15 in the back ground. River Drive goes down under a railroad viaduct at this point, so the water is probably 20 to 25 feet deep right here.
This is the Arsenal Bridge that connects the Iowa side of the river to the Rock Island Arsenal. The bridge was not shut down as City of Davenport did a good job of keeping the approach open.
The picture on the right is of Modern Woodman Ballpark along the banks of the Mississippi. With the flood in April, I was able to get across River Drive and into the parking lot. The water levels weren't all that deep right here. But, with all the crap that is in the river during floods, I wouldn't even dare to tip toe through the water to get a closer look.
Here's a picture of Modern Woodman Park from the air, courtesy of the Quad City Times. With the new flood berm and flood gates in place the field is high and dry, even though there's water surrounding the stadium. The Quad City River Bandits had constructed a bridge that goes over the flood waters allowing fans to be able to get to the stadium.
This is the infamous "sky bridge" in downtown Davenport that heads over to the Rhythm City Casino. The bridge was designed to allow patrons to continue to go to the casino during floods. But just as it was back in April, the casino was closed. I was talking to Marcy Hyder, who is the events coordinator for Davenport One, and whose husband, Mo,, is the VP and GM of the Rhythm City Casino. I said, "Marcy, why does the casino close? I thought the sky bridge was supposed to allow it to stay open."
She said, "Emergency services can't get to the boat during a flood. Well, they could, but they'd have to go up and across the sky bridge and then down to the boat. And that would be a pain and take too long. "
I'm sure the people who came up with the sky bridge idea didn't think that one out all the way.
But the sky bridge does offer some good views of the flood. This is looking west into LeClaire Park along the riverfront. Davenport is the largest city along the Mississippi that does not have a flood wall. This has been a major bone of contention with FEMA over the years who have helped the city with past floods. But I have to tell you - walking along the river front in the summertime when the river is safely in its banks is one of the hallmarks of living in Davenport.
Here is the Levee Inn in front of the casino. As I said in my post from last April, the Levee Inn is sort of a de facto monument to previous floods. The Flood of 1993 ended up just on the underside of the awning. The Levee Inn hasn't been open for a number of years and I'm not certain anyone would be foolish enough to reopen the place.
This is looking east along River Drive. Once again, the city did a good job of keeping water out of establishments along River Drive such as Front Street Brewery. However, Front Street was forced to close last Thursday night due to smoke damage from a warehouse fire next door to the brewery. Geez, if it isn't a flood that nails those Front Street people, it's a fire next door. I hope they re-open soon.
And this is looking west along River Drive. The water is creeping up past River Drive, but well short of 2nd Street where it hit during 1993. Water is receding now, but it will still be a few days before the river fully gets back in its banks. And because of that, it will be touch and go for the 2008 Blues Festival being held at LeClaire Park on July 3 thru 5. I'm hoping it dries out before then as LeClaire Park is a great place to stage a festival.
Here is the fountain at the foot of Main Street. They've been talking about restoring the fountain someday, but I'm sure the occasional floods may have city leaders rethinking that little plan.
We've been pretty lucky over the past three or four years as I can only remember one time when the waters came out of the river. It wasn't all that bad, either. I think it got a foot over flood stage which puts a little bit of water along the levee in LeClaire Park. But now Mother Nature caught up with us and let us know that she and Old Man River can still screw around with us from time to time.
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