2008 Woodie Awards
Mysty's storm story
Mysty Shaver
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: Features
I live in Cedar Rapids, only a couple blocks from the Cedar River, which runs fairly straight through the center of town splitting it east and west. We had a really rainy and wet spring and that was evident by the flooding that occurred prior to the one in Cedar Rapids up in Cedar Falls and Waterloo. After the water crested in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, the hype in Cedar Rapids increased a lot because it was only a matter of time until it crested in Cedar Rapids. The Cedar River was already really high. From there, roads began to close. We have 8 bridges that cross the Cedar River and then Interstate-380. The city closed all the bridges as the water rose, but the Interstate was kept open, making traffic to get across town absolutely ridiculous. The news started covering what to do, who needed to evacuate, etc.
There's something called the 100-year flood plain, which means that each year there's a 1 in 100 chance of their house flooding. The people in those places had a lengthy forewarning about evacuating their houses and were able to get numerous valuables and major furniture and appliances out of their homes before the river was even close to cresting. Our house was located in the 500-year flood plain, meaning that it had a 1 in 500 chance of flooding each year. Tuesday evening (I can't remember the date, June 13ish or whatever that Tuesday was) we were informed that the people living in the 500-year flood plain were supposed to evacuate their homes. Along with the evacuation order, the city set a curfew stating that nobody could come or go between 9:00 pm and 6:00 am-ish. That night, after I got home from work, I packed up just a few things and went to stay with my grandparents, across town and away from the river. However, my parents decided to stay.
The next morning my parents woke up and they had no outside communication (internet, cable, etc.). Because of this they didn't hear that the previous predicted crest level had been raised at least 5 feet, which meant that our house would for sure have some water. As that morning progressed my dad was outside when all of a sudden water started rushing under our privacy fence out back. When this happened my parents decided to check the basement where they quickly found out they could hear the water filling it. This is pretty much when they decided to leave, so they didn't have a whole lot of time to get things together or move things. They had about a half an hour to get whatever they needed, such as clothes, and the dogs out of the house. When they went to leave they had an extremely difficult time finding a path away from our house in which the roads weren't covered in water. They had to drive through about 2 feet of water at one point. After this we were unable to really do anything, which was a horrible feeling. I was staying with my grandparents and they were staying in my grandparents' RV in my best friend's driveway. Needless to say, it was kind of a mess.
The river finally crested on Friday morning at a record-breaking altitude. From there we had to wait and wait just for the water to go back down to reveal the extent of the damages. We were finally able to get back into our house on the following Tuesday after it had been inspected for any foundational damages as well as any injured people. The sight we saw was far beyond what you could ever imagine. Large items of furniture were completely moved, the floor was covered in a thick layer of mud left by the flood water, there was almost an inch thick mold already growing in places due to the humidity combined with being dark and closed up, and virtually everything the water touched was ruined. We found out that we ended up with about a total of 17 feet of water from our basement up, meaning that we had about 6 feet from ground level and then 4 feet in the actual first floor of the house. The next few weeks consisted of nothing but cleaning up. We had to completely gut everything from the house (belongings, furniture, carpet, walls, flooring, etc.).
Little could actually be saved, but we managed to save our clothes, which was really important. Everything else, for the most part, could be replaced and was just a financial loss, nothing too incredibly personal. We were lucky enough to have our bedrooms on the second floor, so the main things we lost were the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the dining room, and my mom's office. The whole situation was extremely difficult, however, I know for a fact that it was a thousand times harder on my parents. To this day, they're still dealing with financial and housing problems. We were lucky enough to get into a rental house really quickly because my grandparents own two rental properties and one set of renters had just moved out. We're currently still living there, but it'll never quite be the same. It's crazy to think we're actually classified as homeless.
There's something called the 100-year flood plain, which means that each year there's a 1 in 100 chance of their house flooding. The people in those places had a lengthy forewarning about evacuating their houses and were able to get numerous valuables and major furniture and appliances out of their homes before the river was even close to cresting. Our house was located in the 500-year flood plain, meaning that it had a 1 in 500 chance of flooding each year. Tuesday evening (I can't remember the date, June 13ish or whatever that Tuesday was) we were informed that the people living in the 500-year flood plain were supposed to evacuate their homes. Along with the evacuation order, the city set a curfew stating that nobody could come or go between 9:00 pm and 6:00 am-ish. That night, after I got home from work, I packed up just a few things and went to stay with my grandparents, across town and away from the river. However, my parents decided to stay.
The next morning my parents woke up and they had no outside communication (internet, cable, etc.). Because of this they didn't hear that the previous predicted crest level had been raised at least 5 feet, which meant that our house would for sure have some water. As that morning progressed my dad was outside when all of a sudden water started rushing under our privacy fence out back. When this happened my parents decided to check the basement where they quickly found out they could hear the water filling it. This is pretty much when they decided to leave, so they didn't have a whole lot of time to get things together or move things. They had about a half an hour to get whatever they needed, such as clothes, and the dogs out of the house. When they went to leave they had an extremely difficult time finding a path away from our house in which the roads weren't covered in water. They had to drive through about 2 feet of water at one point. After this we were unable to really do anything, which was a horrible feeling. I was staying with my grandparents and they were staying in my grandparents' RV in my best friend's driveway. Needless to say, it was kind of a mess.
The river finally crested on Friday morning at a record-breaking altitude. From there we had to wait and wait just for the water to go back down to reveal the extent of the damages. We were finally able to get back into our house on the following Tuesday after it had been inspected for any foundational damages as well as any injured people. The sight we saw was far beyond what you could ever imagine. Large items of furniture were completely moved, the floor was covered in a thick layer of mud left by the flood water, there was almost an inch thick mold already growing in places due to the humidity combined with being dark and closed up, and virtually everything the water touched was ruined. We found out that we ended up with about a total of 17 feet of water from our basement up, meaning that we had about 6 feet from ground level and then 4 feet in the actual first floor of the house. The next few weeks consisted of nothing but cleaning up. We had to completely gut everything from the house (belongings, furniture, carpet, walls, flooring, etc.).
Little could actually be saved, but we managed to save our clothes, which was really important. Everything else, for the most part, could be replaced and was just a financial loss, nothing too incredibly personal. We were lucky enough to have our bedrooms on the second floor, so the main things we lost were the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the dining room, and my mom's office. The whole situation was extremely difficult, however, I know for a fact that it was a thousand times harder on my parents. To this day, they're still dealing with financial and housing problems. We were lucky enough to get into a rental house really quickly because my grandparents own two rental properties and one set of renters had just moved out. We're currently still living there, but it'll never quite be the same. It's crazy to think we're actually classified as homeless.
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