I moved here five years ago after the worst flood Iowa City had ever seen. When I got here, the waters had receded, but the damage was evident and is still visible today. The flood taught the university a few lessons and they put their knowledge to work a couple weeks ago when the river rose again. These are a few pictures (all thanks to John) of the water at its peak when we went on an adventure to see it all. The first is the sandbag wall that protected the eastern campus. The wall on the west bank was twice as long and twice as tall. The second is the underside of a pedestrian bridge connecting east campus with the arts campus. The last two are Lower City Park, which was almost entirely under water. We saw some huge fish swimming through a parking lot. It was pretty neat!
We had fun surveying the damage because we know that this flood did not do even a fraction of the damage we witnessed five years ago. I drove by Lower City Park today on Dubuque St., which had been closed for three weeks because of water on the road. The water is safely confined to the river beds once again and the park is a big brown wasteland, but the rides, the train, the runners, and the kids will all be back soon, even if the grass won't. :)
Oh that looks like a beautiful place, shame about the flooding!
ReplyDeletei looove that last picture! something about the train tracks under water is so cool. i remember that flood. i came out to iowa city to visit jill a little afterwards, and i remember being so amazed at what a dramatic impact it had.
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