Buddies Helping Iowa Flood Victims

Mark, the kids and I are heading back to Iowa to visit the fam in early July and have plans to deliver some fun stuff to Amy. Are there any others who would be interested in a meet-up?

Amy from the Flege Farm wrote:
Jessica from over at Raising Joey wants to help the people of Iowa with the horrible flooding. So many people have lost everything so she came up with this awesome idea!! (see below from her blog.)

Amy from The Flege Farm lives outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa and knows many people who were affected by the Iowa River flooding. The local ARC’s office, the local library, and a friend’s medical office, who also has a child with Down syndrome, has been destroyed. The other day I was trying to think of a way to help out and again my online Usborne Book Store came to my mind. I am going to open up an eShow named as Iowa Flood Victims Book Drive. You can purchase Usborne Books for the flood victims and they will be shipped to Amy to be given out to people that have been affected by the floods. Just email me (Jessica, raisingjoey@gmail.com) before you purchase the books and I will give you Amy’s address if you don’t already have it.
Along with the Usborne eShow, Michelle over at Big Blueberry Eyes will be doing the same type of drive with her Discovery Toys Online Store. The toys will also be shipped directly to Amy.
Also, after talking to Amy, many families are in need of clothes and other items. If you are interested in shipping any extra items you may have around your house, you can contact me at RaisingJoey{at}gmail.com. If you have an online store and would like to add your business to this wonderful cause, please let me know and I will add you to this. Also, please spread the word about our book and toy drive. If you would like the coding for our button to post on your blog, please email me.
Buddies Helping Iowa Flood Victims
* Raising Joey’s Usborne Books eShow
* Big Blueberry Eyes Discovery Toys Store

Floodgate '08 pt.2

Here's a slideshow of pictures that my sister took with my other sister and her 2 kids.
Photos are of the flooded creek behind the dike at my parent's house, flooding of Hope Martin Park, and the W4th St. area of Waterloo, IA.
More updates forthcoming.

Floodgate '08

WANTED: Ark

My hometown (Waterloo, IA born and raised) is in bad shape. The flooding of the Cedar River is the worst it has ever been. In Waterloo, the flood stage of the Cedar River is 12 ft. It is expected to crest at 26 feet, a record. In our neighboring town of Cedar Falls, the river is yet to crest and when it does it will be 103 feet, also a record. Flood stage there is 88 feet. It has been declared a Presidential Disaster area with access to help from FEMA.

Yesterday in Waterloo, the little island in the Cedar River of San Souci was evacuated and is now largely under water.

This afternoon at 2:45pm, the Union Pacific railroad bridge (near the 6th Street bridge) over the Cedar River in Waterloo could no longer stand the pressure and broke. A large piece of the bridge washed down river slamming into the 18th Street Bridge.

The downtown and surrounding areas are being evacuated in CF and downtown Waterloo as well. There is a call for volunteers to report to the UNI-dome in CF and also in Waterloo to help with sandbagging throughout the night.

Many roads and highways are closed. Navigating in and out of town is difficult. The National Guard has been called in to help. Residents are stocking up on bottled water and non-perishables.

Its too late yet tonight to do more than mention that other areas near by like Waverly and New Hartford are flooded or that IA City and Des Moines, and on and on are facing similar fates.

There are too many amazing pictures and videos to link them all. If you're interested in seeing pictures or video, just visit KWWL (especially viewer submitted photos) or the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.

My sister Katie snapped a bunch of shots and I'll get them up tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a few to ponder.

Waterloo 4th St. bridge (potter 2617)

Cedar Falls Boathouse (croberts001)

Cedar Falls, corner of Lincoln and Main (croberts001)

Ride'n the Storm Out

As if recovering from a root canal wasn't enough joy for the evening, our area is in the middle of thunderstorm and tornado alley (with about 4-5 waves of bad storms coming our way). Right about bedtime for the kids we heard the sirens and the tv confirmed that we should take cover immediately. In my youth I've been known to LOVE good storm, stand outside in it and wish for strong (but not destructive enough to hurt anyone) forces to show themselves. After the destruction of half of Parkersburg, I'm - shall we say - gun/storm shy.

The kids DID NOT understand our decision to have a slumber party in the basement. Alexander protested LOUDLY and Sophie simply hung in till nearly 11. Thankfully we have plenty of space in our basement. It's fully refinished and has a spare bedroom, living room, storage area, extra fridge/storage room, laundry room, and bathroom. It has never flooded in the past 60 years till yesterday. Tonight Every room is wet.

Shortly after the sirens went off, friends of ours called and then came over with their cute little puppy to seek shelter. They do not have a wet basement to go to, so ours was a blessing. We decided to make the most of it. We uncorked my fav bottle of wine and the guys had a few brewskies. We popped popcorn and watched local tv so we could see updates on the weather.

So far tonight, at its worst, the lightning and thunder were more than constant, but overlapping. It was pouring AGAIN. We finally got both of the kids down (Sophie in a pack-n-play and Alexander in a twin spare bed- but not HIS bed) but our friend's puppy wasn't having it and shivered and tried to escape.

We shared stories to pass the time. Ironically our friends had heard of the story Tom recently shot in Brasil (please check out his blog as his is one of my favs and is the 1st blogger I followed after being introduced to the blogging community- having a son near to Sophie's age with DS and being a very interesting guy and an AMAZING writer). I had heard of the story because of Tom, and our friend had simply - heard of the story. Folks, it is a small world.

The storms let up just as MORE water poured into the basement. With the help of our friends, we moved even more stuff out of the path of destruction. The kids are sound asleep and that's good because we are right in the line for 1-2 more waves of this band of storms. It's going to be a long night.

Help! I Can't Find My Flood Pants!!

It's POURING rain again, and that's a very bad thing as our basement is WET. Not standing water wet, but squishy, 6 fans blasting, had-to-pull-out-all-of-our-stuff from the many wet areas, including 2 wooden bookshelves and a 1880 steamer trunk that has a wet bottom - wet. It looks like a bomb went off down there. This house does NOT have a history of flooding, which is one of the reasons WICD-TV wanted to come over today and film it.

huh?

Ya, brilliant me sent an email to the local tv channels with a story idea. Actually, my idea was about the park just a few blocks from us. As a way to introduce myself I made a comment about my wet basement and then went on to attach photos of the flooded park that I took this morning.

30 minutes (or less) later I get a call from WICD-TV asking if they could come over and film my basement and interview me as a part of the story they are going to do on the park flooding. (How neighbors in the Hessel Park area are affected, etc.)

If you are what you eat then I guess I'm a chicken. Heck No you can't interview me or show anyone what my basement looks like! Show my photos of the park, give me credit, that's fine. But show the woman Behind the lens? Nah. Not today. They thanked me for the story idea and photos. The story should be on tonight at 5.

Good Lord Willing and the Creek Don't Rise...

...we'll sell our house on Thursday, 11am. We listed it mid-June 2007 and moved out of state in July. That's a load of Benjamin's paid in 2 house payments and double utilities. A month ago the 1st buyer walked away with cold feet 4 days prior to closing. A phone call tonight from our realtor informed us that "all systems are Go" with the current buyers. As we pack an overnight bag and prepare for the trip back to Madison, WI tomorrow, it's hard not to worry about that darned creek, especially as my home town is actually flooded.

If you're in the market to buy or sell a home in Madison, WI, I STRONGLY urge you to look into the services of Jessica Spotts with Stark. She joined our efforts in January and has been amazing. If you need a new roof, our experience with Crest Homes has been great as well.

UPDATE: The unlawful withdrawal from an ATM in the UK finally showed up today. We'll see just how quickly we actually get the $ back from our credit union. Brilliant!