Iowa Residents In Shock After Massive Flood
Iowa has suffered much over the past few weeks. The flood waters have been so high and have traveled through many towns destroying everything in its path. People who once had jobs and a wonderful home to live in now have nothing.
The flood waters are finally receding in some of the cities that were hit the hardest (Iowa City and Cedar Rapids). The governor stated that 36,000 people are not homeless and are weighed down by the physical and emotional distress that they are under.
Flood waters that have already ravaged many cities are moving down river toward the already-swollen Mississippi, threatening still more communities. For eastern Iowans like Dave Metzler, who was evacuated late Thursday night from the bowling alley he owns and lives above in Coralville, near Iowa City, life is now an anxious waiting game to learn the full extent of the damage. “I not only lost my business, I lost my home - I got the double whammy,” says Metzler. “It’s still shock, total shock.”
Ted Thorn, who lives along the rampaging Iowa River near a major dam in rural Iowa City, fears his home is destroyed. “I’m assuming it has at least eight feet of water,” says Thorn, who voluntarily evacuated with his wife on June 7 when “water just started to lap at the door.”
“I don’t know if I still have a house. We’re considering ourselves to be fairly lucky - we weren’t part of the group that was told, ‘Grab your toothbrush and get out.’… But it’s still a pretty anxiety-producing event, not knowing where you are as far as your house is concerned. We may have lost everything.”