"Flood 2008"

The flooding here in Cedar Rapids was much worse than anticipated. Here, the Cedar River's flood stage is 12 feet - it crested at 31.8 feet. The water is receding, thankfully, much quicker than people thought it would. My family is lucky that our house is uphill from the Cedar River. Yet here I was for the last week, complaining about not being able to take a shower. How dare I.

Some people have lost everything. Downtown businesses have been destroyed. The public library was almost fully submerged. One of the largest and best known furniture stores in town, Smulekoff's, will be out of business for some time, I'm sure. Broken windows... wannabe sailboat furniture... Basically no one had flood insurance. You're in a 500-, 100-year flood plain... do you ever assume you'll be the one whose home or business is flooded out and need that insurance?

... Of course not.

There's a lot of damage.
There's a lot of hurt.
There will be pain.
There will be suffering.
There will be cleanup galore.
There will be questions.
There will be anger.

But there will always be a helping hand.
There will always be a willing ear.
There will always be open arms.
And there will always be caring hearts and love to spare.