With two weeks of seemingly non-stop rain, water began forcing it's way into neighborhoods and businesses in Iowa City on Thursday evening. Many cities to the North had already experienced flooding that exceeded 500 year flood plans, so I guess it was just a matter of time for Iowa City and Coralville.
The University of Iowa Apartments, where I live, ordered a mandatory evacuation of it's residents on Thursday afternoon. We were all supposed to be out no later than 4pm on Friday. As it turned out, the flood waters entered the hawkeye apartments even sooner than expected. So by noon on Friday many apartments were inaccesible.
Luckily, Theresa had secured temporary housing for us offered by the University in Hillcrest, one of the many residence halls, despite an hour long wait in a line. As soon as I got into town, I learned that Tee's dad and brothers were ready to come down with a trailer to haul our stuff to safety.
We all worked from 8pm to 4am to get most of our stuff out of storage and our apartment. Tee's dad and brothers moved it all their place in Independence in two trips from Iowa City--a roundtrip of about 140 miles. And it was fortunate that they were willing to make the extra trip that night because the next day our storage was flooded.
As I write this huddled under the lofted bed where Tee sleeps quitely, I know that it could have been a lot worse for us, if it weren't for Tee's dad and brothers willing to jump into action for us when we needed it the most. Hillcrest may not be the Marriot, but it's dry, safe, and home for now.
The following pictures were taken Friday, June 13th, 2008.
In the picture below, is the road that leads into our storage.
The Walgreens Theresa worked at is right on the other side of those trees you can see under the bridge. Our apartment complex is to the left of the picture.
Here's the Sonic UP the street from our apartment.
I'll post pictures of our apartment as soon as I can. Stay tuned flood fans!
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