(Des Moines, IA, June 15, 2008) This is being written about 11:00 p.m. I tried to spend the day on items other than flood news and only partly succeeded. Nevertheless, I did not monitor news conferences nor did I make any personal observations. The nightly news reports from local television had some interesting updates although it was a visual image that really grabbed my attention.
Briefly, according to www.rivergages.com, as of 10:00 p.m. Fourmile Creek in Des Moines is slightly above the 12 foot flood stage at 12.05 feet. It has risen 0.41 feet in the past 24 hours during which there was 0.03 inches of precipitation. The possibly good news for people whose homes and businesses were flooded out in the Birdland Park area is that the Des Moines River at Second Avenue is at 28.31 feet, only about 5 feet above the flood stage of 23 feet. The Des Moines River below the confluence of the Raccoon River is still almost 8 feet above flood stage.
In terms of elevation, at 10:00 p.m. Saylorville Lake Reservoir is at 889.22 feet above sea level. The Des Moines River below the Raccoon is at 794.29 feet, with a flood stage of 786.52 feet above sea level.
At 11:00 p.m., the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids is at 24.30 feet. The Iowa River in Iowa City is at 31.44 feet.
A few sinkholes developed in Des Moines over old sewer lines that run beneath levees. These were at SE 4th and SE 7th Streets. Apparently there is a likelihood of more such sinkholes developing. (Cf: The Dahl’s grocery store at Ingersoll and 35th was not rebuilt closer to Ingersoll because there is a sewer line running through the southern parking lot. So we can’t build a suburban-type store over a sewer line, but we can build levees over them.)
During Gov. Chet Culver’s late afternoon press conference on Sunday, July 15th, a sign hung behind the podium promoted the Flood2008.iowa.gov website. Essentially it offers information on Department of Human Services and Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, in addition to information on the schedules of the governor and the lieutenant governor.
Checking the Des Moines Public Schools website to download the agenda for the June 17th board meeting, I saw information on how the schools are responding to flooding. Some students are attending summer classes and there are a few schools with a year-round calendar. The school district and the school board usually are very good about using the Internet to distribute information in a timely manner. This was not the exception. However, clicking on the link for flood information led me to a site at DMPSflood.blogspot.com that included a sidebar with general news stories from the Des Moines Register. (Comment: I think that the relationship between the school district and the local daily newspaper is too close, as I have said before. Thus, I am not pleased to see what amounts to advertising on what should be a public service site. Is Wells Fargo going to put up an ad for rebuilding loans? The bank is considered a public partner for the school system, so why not offer it advertising space?)
While visiting the website for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, I saw a link to another website: 2008Flood.org. This appears to be a general bulletin board type of site. One item of interest on it is a notice that the Cedar Valley Dance Club and the Waterloo Center for the Arts are co-sponsoring a fundraising dance to aid flood victims in the Cedar Valley.
M.R. Field covers local events for AroundDesMoines.com.
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