How was Iowa City affected by the flood awhile back? (Cedar Rapids: for sale, apartment)

[gimme it]

Curious to know whether there was any serious and remaining damage.

[UW Badgers]

There are houses upon houses sitting and rotting. There are many for sale as well. Yes, some are rebuilding, but where I drive through, notsomuch. I think the city is doomed. The downtown is coming back slowly, but some big companies bailed. Building the downtown is one thing, but when people are still living in their cars, that's a problem.. It seems the city cared way too much about that then helping the one's who really need it. I'm not ripping the business' and the people that own them, that's great you got the money to rebuild, but when people are leaving the city to live elsewhere, the downtown won't survive.

Even if your home didn't get flooded, you are still affected. It's sad really. We have lived here 4 years and I just applied for a job out of state because I don't see much hope here. Plus this city has no leadership and lacks so much. It's been 5 months since the flood and way too many are still left out in the cold.

[iowegian]

Originally Posted by UW Badgers

There are houses upon houses sitting and rotting. There are many for sale as well. Yes, some are rebuilding, but where I drive through, notsomuch. I think the city is doomed. The downtown is coming back slowly, but some big companies bailed. Building the downtown is one thing, but when people are still living in their cars, that's a problem.. It seems the city cared way too much about that then helping the one's who really need it. I'm not ripping the business' and the people that own them, that's great you got the money to rebuild, but when people are leaving the city to live elsewhere, the downtown won't survive.

Even if your home didn't get flooded, you are still affected. It's sad really. We have lived here 4 years and I just applied for a job out of state because I don't see much hope here. Plus this city has no leadership and lacks so much. It's been 5 months since the flood and way too many are still left out in the cold.

I believe this quote is referring to Cedar Rapids, not Iowa City. I would say Iowa City is far from doomed. Plus, our downtown didn't flood.

Really only a couple of residential neighborhoods flooded, just "Mosquito Flats" as I've heard it called (off of Rocky Shore) and a few houses and apartment buildings in Coralville off of 5th Street.

The Coralville Strip was flooded and I'd say about half the businesses are back now. Quite a few moved to less flood-prone locations, others are still cleaning up. Only a few closed, like Sluggers and maybe Lone Star?

The animal shelter was flooded and is operating from a temporary location out in the country south of town. There were some businesses affected along the river around Waterfront Hy-Vee too, I don't know if these have opened yet.

The University was probably hit hardest, all of the campus near the river was flooded. The Memorial Union, the art buildings, Voxman, Hancher, and Clapp were all flooded and I believe they're all still closed. They're putting art classes in the old Menards building out on Highway 1 for now while they rebuild. The Memorial Union just reopened above the lower level, which they're still working on.

Overall, it hurt, but we're recovering well and I think everything should be back to normal by next summer.

[UW Badgers]

Yes, it was Cedar Rapids I was talking about.

Iowa City/Coralville is way ahead of the game. Amazing how much a difference there is in cities that are only about 25 miles apart. Iowa City/Coralville didn't sit on their butts, then again they actually have a formed government.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by UW Badgers

Yes, it was Cedar Rapids I was talking about.

Iowa City/Coralville is way ahead of the game. Amazing how much a difference there is in cities that are only about 25 miles apart. Iowa City/Coralville didn't sit on their butts, then again they actually have a formed government.

Iowa City overall experienced a small fraction of what Cedar Rapids dealt with. The core of the city was completely fine. University buildings are blessed to have the state rush in and dump funding left and right to rebuild ASAP.

I was there for 3 days last week and I couldn't tell one bit the flood came through. I know tons of houses were flooded and many businesses, but it's a fairly small % of the metro area. Not that those that were flooded areb't dealing with a world of hurt!

[SharpHawkeye]

I think a large part of how Iowa City was able to escape more serious damage is just a happy accident of geography. Since Iowa City is so hilly, and the river valley there is so relatively narrow...only a few areas flooded, and the rest were naturally protected.

Cedar Rapids, on the other hand, is in a wide and flat plain for the most part. So when it flooded...it went from block to block to block.

And while I don't share all of UWBadgers' criticisms of Cedar Rapids or his grim outlook...he is right on one thing. CR has a very dysfunctional government, while IC's government is generally on top of things. The difference in disaster response is at least somewhat responsible for the difference in the cities recovery.

[UW Badgers]

Originally Posted by SharpHawkeye

And while I don't share all of UWBadgers' criticisms of Cedar Rapids or his grim outlook...he is right on one thing. CR has a very dysfunctional government, while IC's government is generally on top of things. The difference in disaster response is at least somewhat responsible for the difference in the cities recovery.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm a HER...

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by UW Badgers

There are houses upon houses sitting and rotting. There are many for sale as well. Yes, some are rebuilding, but where I drive through, notsomuch. I think the city is doomed. The downtown is coming back slowly, but some big companies bailed. Building the downtown is one thing, but when people are still living in their cars, that's a problem.. It seems the city cared way too much about that then helping the one's who really need it. I'm not ripping the business' and the people that own them, that's great you got the money to rebuild, but when people are leaving the city to live elsewhere, the downtown won't survive.

Even if your home didn't get flooded, you are still affected. It's sad really. We have lived here 4 years and I just applied for a job out of state because I don't see much hope here. Plus this city has no leadership and lacks so much. It's been 5 months since the flood and way too many are still left out in the cold.

What big companies bailed??

Honestly I think there is a silver lining in the flood. A lot of these homes were 100+ years old and ready to cave in anyway. Good way to thin out the heard.

[Busch71]

Originally Posted by iowegian

The animal shelter was flooded and is operating from a temporary location out in the country south of town. There were some businesses affected along the river around Waterfront Hy-Vee too, I don't know if these have opened yet.

The University was probably hit hardest, all of the campus near the river was flooded. The Memorial Union, the art buildings, Voxman, Hancher, and Clapp were all flooded and I believe they're all still closed. They're putting art classes in the old Menards building out on Highway 1 for now while they rebuild. The Memorial Union just reopened above the lower level, which they're still working on.

I worked on flood recovery in several of the U of I buildings (EPB, Adler, Becker, IATL, IMU/Iowa House, Art Museum, Art West, Theater, etc.). To see how bad most of them were when we first set foot in them and see how much progress has been made is really quite impressive. I also did some work at the temp. animal shelter to get them up and running.

[Evan_Lanctot]

It's also true that Iowa City is just so much of a better city than Cedar Rapids, which I found to be a hellhole.

IC gets my vote as one of the most liveable cities in the country.