It rained and poured. . .

Hellooooo ladies and gentlemen! Today we will be playing "You know it when. . ." Today's topic of discussion will be the Cedar Rapids Flooding of 2008.



1) You know we have some 'bright' people around town when the lights are on at a building with major flooding.



2) You know flooding is overwhelming when you can't flush your toilets and you don't even live in a town where there is flooding.



3) You know the water is deep when there are waves sweeping through 1st ave.



4) You know it's not safe to be out when a now-empty dumpster which once held who-knows-what is floating through the streets.



5) You know the water is powerful when it takes out a train bridge that twenty cars were on to keep the bridge in one piece. (Yeah, that worked well. . .).



6) You know the water is high when an originally 'safe' street (it was just outside original evacuations) has a building where the water is now halfway up the door. (My daddy's office).



7) You know eastern iowa has too much flooding when equipment is being taken to a place where there is also flooding (it already crested, so at least they have less water. . .?).



8) You know there's too much water around when it is popping out of sewage drains. (EWWW!!).



9) You know water is covering a lot of roads when you see signs saying "All Cedar Rapids exits are closed."



10) You know water is too high when good ol' (or not so good. .. . rather 'shady' to quote dear Jenna) DQ is underwater.





Well I've now lived through two 'great' floods. . .'93 (which I TOTALLY remember. .. . not) and 2008 (ok, so I haven't lived through it yet, but I think I'm gonna make it. . .as long as I don't flush).



There are a couple cool things I've seen in all of this.



1) People helping people. When a few friends of mine and myself were filling sandbags last night, it was the most awesome thing to see so many people coming together. Cedar Rapids is a great community overall. It isn't just anywhere where so many people would come together to save a town and help people they've never even met.



2) Rainbows. Normally, rainbows don't get to me much, but in this past week I've seen a good handful of pictures of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen, and it brings a sense of peace. The rainbow is God's Promise. We may have the worst flood we've ever seen, but it's nothing like what Noah had to deal with! God will give us the strength to get through it all.





If you actually read all of that randomness, I salute you. :)