A Year After The Flood

While some folks might wonder why we’d celebrate the first anniversary of a flood that devastated so much of Cedar Rapids as well as Eastern Iowa, Duane Wood, publisher of WDG Communications, doesn’t have to wonder. While many people are still recovering, plenty of other people want to remember.
Duane (left), has published a new book, ”One Week [...]

Selfless Help For Flood Victims

Jeff Schneider and his wife, Sharon, both 51, of Cedar Rapids are perfect examples of how people who need help often become the first to step up to assist others.
If you read today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette you know that they lost a business to the flood, both have health issues to deal with and that they will [...]

Harvey’s Hope

Harvey Nelson, 88, of Cedar Rapids will celebrate his first birthday without his wife, Clairbel, on Nov. 8. If you read my Ramblin’ column in today’s Gazette you learned she died June 10, a day before the flood chased Harvey from their home on Ellis Boulevard NW along the bank of the Cedar River. It was the third time [...]

Looking At The Flood Of ‘29

When Ed Pettus showed me the message on the back of a 1929 postcard he recently purchased, I was amazed at how it read like it could have been written after the 2008 flood except for one notable exception — The Gazette continued publishing this year. (See my Ramblin’ column in today’s Gazette.)
The picture on the [...]

Elkader, CR in Same Boat

Elkader was named “Iowa River Town of the Year” by Iowa Rivers Revival in April.
Cedar Rapids officials designated 2008 as “The Year of the River.”
Both communities were heavily damaged by the Floods of 2008. Did these designations have anything to do with that? Doubtful, because all you have to do is look around Eastern Iowa to [...]

No Cedar, But CR People Were Great

Cedar the cat still hasn’t been found. But Christie Campbell, a reporter at the Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pa., won’t ever forget her week-long visit to flood ravaged Cedar Rapids.
Maybe you read the story in Saturday’s Gazette. Cedar was so named after being adopted by a group of volunteers from the Thomas Presbyterian Church in Eighty Four, Pa., near the [...]

Brothers Lost Homes to Tornado, Flood

How can two separate disasters strike two brothers living 80 miles apart in a three-week period?  How are they coping? What will they do?
Those are questions today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette begins to answer in my year-long project following brothers Mike and Tom Reinert who grew up in Elkader and lost their homes to natural disasters – Tom [...]

Kilroy was here

In today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette I mention that Linda Ferguson found ”Kilroy was here” graffiti behind a wall at her flood damaged northwest Cedar Rapids home.

I’ve always liked this little guy and knew that he evolved during World War II. But, I never really knew the story behind him.
If there’s anywhere to find out, it [...]

Criticized For Receiving FEMA Check

A handful of people have weighed in about my column in today’s Gazette about receiving a FEMA check for damage to my basement after my sump pump failed. They have called me names, said I have no right to accept such a check and tell me to give it to people who really need it.
I’m [...]

Survived Flood and Tornado

Jenny Hayes, 50, has now survived a flood as well as a tornado.
Jenny was in fourth grade back in 1968 when a tornado roared through Oelwein. Her parents’ house was a rock she told me as we chatted at the shelter set up at New Creation United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids. The staircase in the middle [...]