Summer disasters strike Iowa
Molly Hottle
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: Opinion
With the arrival of Labor Day, summer has officially expired and, for most of us, this includes the end of the carefree days spent away from class and other school-year obligations.
But for some of us, there are memories of the summer of 2008 that will be forever committed to memory.
I was on the grounds of North High School when the levy at Birdland Marina broke. I was reporting for the Des Moines Register, which is where I spent my summer as an intern.
We waited all night and when the Des Moines River breached its banks at 5 a.m., I raced down to the spot.
I watched Des Moines public works crews fight to keep the rising water from the Des Moines River at bay.
Their weapons were sandbags and shovels, but neither did much good.
I was standing between Channel 13 personnel and CNN anchors when the public works guys began to run from the sandbag wall, jumped into their huge trucks and told us we'd better get the heck out of dodge or we'd be floating.
So we stayed to see what would happen, but ran for higher ground when the Des Moines police forced us out.
The people living in that area had their homes swamped and many pieces of their lives destroyed.
But this wasn't the worst story in the state.
Experts say it may take a decade for residents of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Coralville to recover from the catastrophic flooding they experienced in June.
Blake Steil, a criminal justice freshman and kicker for our new football team, has lived in Iowa City all of his life.
His house wasn't affected, he says, thankfully. But one of his friends had water to the roof of his home.
"It was scary. We weren't sure how far the water was going to go," Steil said. "My friend's house was full of water and everything was destroyed."
But that's still not all.
It was around the beginning of May when an F-5 tornado flattened the northeastern Iowa town of Parkersburg.
It left death, destruction, pain and not much else in its wake.
But for some of us, there are memories of the summer of 2008 that will be forever committed to memory.
I was on the grounds of North High School when the levy at Birdland Marina broke. I was reporting for the Des Moines Register, which is where I spent my summer as an intern.
We waited all night and when the Des Moines River breached its banks at 5 a.m., I raced down to the spot.
I watched Des Moines public works crews fight to keep the rising water from the Des Moines River at bay.
Their weapons were sandbags and shovels, but neither did much good.
I was standing between Channel 13 personnel and CNN anchors when the public works guys began to run from the sandbag wall, jumped into their huge trucks and told us we'd better get the heck out of dodge or we'd be floating.
So we stayed to see what would happen, but ran for higher ground when the Des Moines police forced us out.
The people living in that area had their homes swamped and many pieces of their lives destroyed.
But this wasn't the worst story in the state.
Experts say it may take a decade for residents of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Coralville to recover from the catastrophic flooding they experienced in June.
Blake Steil, a criminal justice freshman and kicker for our new football team, has lived in Iowa City all of his life.
His house wasn't affected, he says, thankfully. But one of his friends had water to the roof of his home.
"It was scary. We weren't sure how far the water was going to go," Steil said. "My friend's house was full of water and everything was destroyed."
But that's still not all.
It was around the beginning of May when an F-5 tornado flattened the northeastern Iowa town of Parkersburg.
It left death, destruction, pain and not much else in its wake.
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