Cedar Rapids slowly gathers itself
A month after the devastating floods, effort are underway to clear out downtown and reopen businesses. A Quaker Oats factory is among the first. But more than 2,000 homes will never be rebuilt.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — Nearly every morning, about 200 laborers gather under a highway entrance ramp here, looking for work in the wake of the floods last month that wiped out neighborhoods and left the downtown business district without electricity.
Each hopes to be among a couple dozen picked daily to don a hard hat and march single file into the landmark Quaker Oats manufacturing plant. Once inside, they clear out the mud and damaged equipment that the Cedar River left behind, using scrub brushes, toothbrushes, squeegees, shovels and a lot of elbow grease.
"I've been lying in the muck, putting my whole body into it," said Tanica Pearson, who learned about the work when her son picked up a flier. "They want the floors to look brand new, in a form it wasn't even at before the floods."
Before the flood and after the flood: That is the demarcation that defines life in Cedar Rapids.
Much of what existed before the river swelled 20 feet above flood level is gone for good. More than 2,000 homes probably never will be rebuilt. The Summit View mobile home park on the west side of town is one of several now swelling with refugees.
A district of warehouses and shops along the river bank probably will lose many of the 818 businesses that were flooded. What had been a fragile economic revival -- rare for a rural, Midwestern city the size of Cedar Rapids (population 120,000) -- now is at risk.
Officials estimate it will cost $86 million to buy out the Cedar Rapids homeowners who will not be allowed to rebuild in the 100-year flood plain. Yet only about $50 million in buyout funds are expected to be made available -- statewide -- by the federal government.
The wait for information unnerves homeowners. One expressed his frustration in a spray-painted message across the siding of his home, "To: Cedar Rapids City Council & Mayor: Let us Move On."
Debbie Benson spent a hot morning last week tearing down walls and removing debris from her 88-year-old mother's home, which had flooded up to the second story.
"Nobody can move back in here," said Benson, waving her arm at a neighborhood overflowing with waterlogged furniture, broken plaster and ruined appliances.
Cedar Rapids' landmark City Hall, which stands on an island in the Cedar River and was marooned by the flood waters, also faces uncertainty. Some have suggested that city offices be moved permanently off the island. A week ago, workers used a construction crane to remove files through a second-story window to temporary quarters on higher ground.
- Nation IN BRIEF - THE MIDWEST - Tornadoes, Storms, Floods Pound Area Jun 18, 1990
- 22 Killed in India Floods Jun 09, 1988
- Mississippi River Crests for 2nd Time May 01, 2001
