My last post detailed how the flooding of the Cedar and Iowa Rivers had inundated the towns of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. My alma mater, the University of Iowa, was hard pressed to keep the Arts Campus, as it is known, dry, and close to 20 buildings took on water, including Hancher Auditorium, which had water up to the stage, I am told. The Union, the English-Philosophy Building, the Journalism Building, Mayflower Residence Hall…all were hard hit. As my daughter lived in Mayflower Hall her freshman year of college, I can imagine that the flood will not have treated the residence hall kindly.
Now, however, the flood is moving to other parts of the state: Burlington, Keokuk, Oakille, and into Illinois. Finally, Governor Rod Blagovich got around to surveying some of the flood damage, well behind Chet Culver of Iowa and….the very last guy who will be coming….tomorrow, to Cedar Rapids, they say, is our own beloved fearless leader George “W” Bush. Yes, the very same “heckuva job, Brownie” Bush who has been touring France and the rest of Europe on his “farewell tour.”
I can hardly wait to hear good old George’s impressions of pigs stranded on a roof and other such unusual flood sights. He’ll probably pose with some of the locals like he did during Katrina and then disappear forever.
Meanwhile, crops are ruined at a time when the economy is struggling under the cost(s) of $4+ gasoline, and the long trek to cross Iowa (Interstate 80, the main east-west thoroughfare was closed until recently) added an additional 110 miles to the trek.
The recession George denied we were in has now been confirmed, the farmers are hurting (along with a lot of other sectors of the economy) and we can all look forward to much much higher prices for food, after this flood devastates the nation’s breadbasket.
