Cedar Rapids

Condolences and best wishes for a quick recovery to all suffering from the terrible flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and many parts of the Midwest.

I was in CR about two weeks ago, and took this picture from the highway cutting through town:

That's City Hall and a few other civic buildings on the island in the middle of the Cedar River.  The town straddles both sides of the river.

CR is probably about as different from Paris as imaginable, but the island certainly bore a resemblance to Ile de la Cite (even if not Ile St. Louis). And, apparently, the city fathers put those visible emblems of civic pride in the middle of the river because CR had never flooded -- until this week. 

Here's a photograph from the NY Times, taken yesterday:

Here's another photo from the Times:

I believe I took the following photo in the same neighborhood two weeks earlier:

That's one of many factories located throughout CR; I'm not sure what kind of zoning laws exist, but industry abuts residences in many of the older parts of town.  Here's another photo I took:

The next photo is an aerial view, found on-line via the Cedar Rapids Gazette, of the Quaker Oats factory complex as it looks today:

(Quaker is a big employer in the city; maybe the biggest. That box of Cap'n Crunch in your cupboard is likely made there. Unfortunately, it also contributes to a citywide odor that, in my travels, is unique to CR).

Next are a couple of photos that I took.  The first shows where the water level normally is (the Quaker plant is in the distance):

And this one depicts the granary-like structures seen at the bottom right of the aerial view:

Strange (and often violent) weather seems abundant this year. When Colleen and I were in CR, e.g., tornadoes struck just north of town, killing nearly 10.  And tornado warnings sounded right next to the motel near midnight one evening, causing all to huddle in the ground floor hallway, away from the windows. (By the way, I've lived through earthquakes and hurricanes -- and tornadoes are scarier.)

Is it just a cyclical pattern, or something worse?  Whatever the cause, one shudders to think that extreme weather may become the norm.

What climate calamity, by the way, can befall New York? Hurricanes are always possible, even if extremely rare.  But so is flooding in Cedar Rapids.

Once again, condolences to all suffering from this disaster and best wishes for a rapid recovery.

Here are a few more photographs I took in CR in drier times.

Park on Collins Road on a late afternoon:

Alley across from a surprisingly good Vietnamese restaurant on 8th Street in downtown CR:

Storefronts on First Avenue:

Crossing the Cedar River at sunset: