flooding update...again

We're running out of sandbagging space...


Some views from the church building roof facing west to south...


...and east to south.


Mandatory evacuations are now being implemented for people in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Some are given time until the end of the day to vacate...others, only a half-hour.

flood update

I made my second trip to the Coralville Reservoir this morning to capture some images of the spillway. The dam is located on the far side of the spillway, which controls most of the Iowa River flow (Clear Creek joins and adds to the Iowa River further downstream). The amount of water released from the dam is almost to its maximum (currently 27,000 cubic feet of water per second); the release is supposed to be completely opened by next Wednesday (40,000 CFS). On top of that amount is what ever water passes over the spillway (seen below), which renders our efforts useless to contain any excessive water still held by the dam.



Some people, though, still maintain a light view of the circumstances...



Some shots of the nearby area...



Still sandbagging! There are now teams of people going to residences neighboring our church campus to help them sandbag their homes too. Because we're doing this, we've established what remains of our parking lot as the North Iowa City headquarters for sandbagging.




And the waters keep rising...

FLOOD

Flooding has been occurring on the church campus for more than a week, and now it's becoming somewhat reputable. Here's how things looked this past Saturday the 7th...


The very next day, June 8th...



Word was released that the dam controlling the water was continually going to be opened because the reservoir water level was getting to the height that the water was about to go over the excess spillway. So, the decision was made to wait no longer...we needed to sandbag the church building.

An e-mail was sent to a mass mailing list, the local Christian radio station was called, and we had an army of help. AMAZING. People brought their shovels, their trucks...even their bulldozers.







And this morning, June 9th...

CHAMPS!!!

more Parkersburg coverage

Video of the Parkersburg EF5 tornado captured from various cameras at the First State Bank...the first shot is from an outdoor ATM security camera, the second from an indoor teller camera. Incredible.

shelter in the storm

Nine days ago, Parkersburg, Iowa was decimated by an EF5 tornado...an enhanced F5 tornado, which is the most powerful rating given to a tornado. 205 MPH winds from a storm that, at one time, measured a mile in width wiped out one-third of the town, leveling more than 300 homes and businesses. Parkersburg is located about two hours north of Iowa City, but the effects were still felt here from friends and family of our church that fell victim to the storm...some of whom were among the 50+ injured, one of whom was of the seven deaths.

Earlier that very same day, our church had introduced the song, "I Have A Shelter", which seems to find its lyrical inspiration from the Psalms (cf. Psalm 55) and depicts a powerful image of God's shelter amidst storms--both literal and figurative. Our programming lineup had the same song to be used this past week, and I wanted to use the story and images from this storm as the song's foundation as we recognized and remembered those affected by this Memorial holiday storm. So, I put together a video slideshow of images from various sources for a visual application to the song as we sang it together.


Photos Courtesy: NWS of Des Moines (http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cases/080525/dmx_parkersburg_damage/) & dougiefresh27 (http://picasaweb.google.com/dougiefresh27)

Other photos (from NWS)...
The foliage AND bark stripped from a tree.

Mud caked to a utility pole from 205 MPH horizontal winds.

This utility pole was ripped from its socket after being twirled in the hole like a straw spinning in a beverage glass.

home owners!

Hols and I signed the dotted line...ahem...a LOT of dotted lines. We have a few more keys on our key rings. And we now "own" a piece of Earth. I want to celebrate, but, honestly, I'm just tired. Ran around a lot today to make a lot of things happen...and they DID happen. I guess I'll celebrate subconsciously with my pillow tonight.

Meantime....HOORAY! :)