The Midwest is getting soaked…..
At 90, Mary McMahon is old enough to remember the record-setting floods of 1929, when the Cedar River crested at 20 feet. Thursday morning, she came downtown with her son to compare the flood of her childhood with the flood of 2008.
“I just can’t believe it,” she said, as she stood in front of U.S. Bank on Second Avenue and watched dirty brown river water flowing up the street in front of her. “It was bad then, but it was nothing like this… This is worse, a lot worse.”
Engineers and National Guard teams examined dams across this storm-deluged state Tuesday looking for signs of damage from the high water that led to the major collapse that nearly emptied Lake Delton.
The huge breach in an embankment holding back Lake Delton released a torrent that washed away three houses and a stretch of highway. The weekend’s storm also displaced thousands of Indiana residents and was blamed for 15 deaths in the Midwest and elsewhere.
And cities are being evacuated……
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines River has punched a 100-foot wide hole in a levee, allowing water to gush into an area near the downtown of Iowa’s capital and largest city early this morning.
A mandatory evacuation has been ordered for 270 homes in Des Moines. Many residents have already left the area under a voluntary evacuation request issued yesterday.