The State of the Union, June 19, 2008

"I really don't have much of an opinion of his coming," said Lashawn Baker, 33, whose family was just starting to clean her flooded home in a southwest Cedar Rapids neighborhood. "It took him a long time to get to New Orleans and he didn't help any of those people, so I don't think he's going to do anything to help Cedar Rapids now that he's here."

I find it astonishing that this quote would be featured in a news article so prominently, and would so utterly and completely knock down the legitimacy of a presidential administration.

We are living in a time when the President of the United States of America can visit an American city that has suffered from a natural disaster and a news organization runs a story that says, basically, the President of the United States is a worthless figurehead who doesn't care about the American people...

President Bush, surveying the aftermath of devastating floods during a lightning-quick tour of the Midwest on Thursday, assured residents and rescuers alike that he is listening to their concerns and understands their exhaustion.

"Obviously, to the extent we can help immediately, we will help," said Bush, still mindful of criticism that the government reacted slowly to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

"You'll come back better," the president said while being briefed by state and local officials at a cinderblock emergency operations center set up at a community college here, part of a three-hour tour. "Sometimes it's hard to see it."

Bush was in Europe when tornadoes hit and heavy rains sent rivers surging over their banks, killing at least 24 people, the majority in Iowa. Flooding forced tens of thousands across six states to flee their homes and washed out millions of acres of prime farm and grazing lands. He made a point to try to show his deep concern while overseas and traveled to Iowa just two days after returning.

...and the reaction to that fact is a collective "so what?" Not only is it not news, it's not even the point of the story.

-WS

Midwest Flood Photos

These photos come from a variety of places and sources throughout the affected areas. Sometimes the aftermath is just as bad as the event itself.

Cedar Rapids IA:



Clarksville MO:




Hannibal MO:


Amana Refridgeration Plant, Middle Amana IA:


Cedar Rapids IA:


Hannibal MO:

AmeriCorps: Saving Americans from Flooding

"Show me the priority list that keeps this alive and show me what what you kill in order to keep this alive," Mr. Gingrich said. "The President's answer is, 'Don't have a balanced budget, and your grandchildren will be glad that you borrowed the money from them to do this in your lifetime.'
--Speaker Newt Gingrich, Feb 8, 1995, commenting on funding the AmeriCorps Program

Volunteers from AmeriCorps are making their presence felt in towns along the Mississippi that face record flood water levels. But can anyone remember when the Republicans were eager to destroy the AmeriCorps program?

The next time you feel like kvetching about how the federal government wastes your tax dollars, think about Kyle Henning and Katie Rooney. For health insurance, a few hundred bucks a month, a small educational grant and all the ready-to-eat meals they can stomach, they just might save your town.

They are too modest to make any such claim themselves, but this hamlet’s epic battle against the surging Mississippi River would almost certainly not be going as well as it is were it not for Henning, 25, Rooney, 23, and a handful of their AmeriCorps teammates.

Last week, as soggy Midwest states to the north began sending their storm runoff south, threatening towns for hundreds of miles along the Mississippi, the AmericCorps team showed up to help Clarksville make its stand.

They quickly saw that they could best assist the town, with its unpaid mayor and council and tiny city staff, by coordinating volunteer and liaison efforts at City Hall.

AmeriCorps' Katie Rooney helps coordinate volunteer efforts in Clarksville on Monday.

“I think they are awesome,” said Clarksville Alderman Mike Russell, also the town’s emergency services manager. “I can literally tell you that if it was not for them running the City Hall end, we would be much worse off.” If parts of the town successfully fend off the record floodwaters expected by the weekend, it will be largely because of Rooney, Henning and their colleagues, he added.

So when is someone going to ask Kit Bond how smart it was to cap the AmeriCorps program at 50,000?

[Salon.com - Mar 3, 2003] Despite Bush's promises to expand the program dramatically over last year's $265 million, it encountered strong opposition among congressional conservatives who are usually allied with Bush. The House whip, Republican Dick Armey of Texas, who has called AmeriCorps "obnoxious," and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., added a measure to the budget bill last fall to cap the program at 50,000 volunteers -- a direct slap at the president's "compassionate" agenda.

Bush saw what was happening, critics say, but did nothing to stop it. Even last December, when the administration knew Congress had capped the number of volunteers at 50,000 in the budget bill, he was still claiming in speeches that the AmeriCorps program was "expanding mightily," [Senator Evan] Bayh said.

The volunteers are "doing a lot to work to mentor and clean parks and take care of the elderly," Bush said in a Dec. 10 talk to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "Listen, part of making sure America is a compassionate place means acts as simple as walking into a shut-in's home and saying 'I love you' on a regular basis."

Bush signed the $275 million budget -- which included the 50,000-volunteer limit -- last month [Feb 2003]

Andy Lent in Vinton, Iowa posted this last month:

The second thought is that we will be very fortunate to have AmeriCorps here in about a month. The AmeriCorps volunteers are trained for exactly these types of situations. There may be some that come from other parts of the country right now, but it will be nice to have them nearby to respond more quickly.

Is someone going to ask wingnut Kate O'Beirne about this article?

Because AmeriCorps can "foster good citizenship," Goldsmith and Lenkowsky expect that their fellow conservatives will join with liberals to support the expanded program. But ever since Bill Clinton created it in 1993, AmeriCorps has involved a different sort of flag-waving for its conservative critics, who saw only red at the notion of a bureaucratized paid-"volunteer" program. Under AmeriCorps, about 50,000 members a year sign on to work between 20 and 40 hours a week, for up to two years, in exchange for a $4,725 annual award to use for college costs. About half of the participants also receive a living allowance, bringing the total cost of each AmeriCorps "volunteer" to $14,025 a year, according to Goldsmith. Bush's proposal would increase the number of members by 25,000, and impose new accountability measures in response to the program's conservative critics.

But the critics are right: AmeriCorps is a wasteful boondoggle. After a few years of monitoring the program — and armed with critical reports from the General Accounting Office — the House Appropriations Committee eliminated the funding for AmeriCorps. (The program was spared by the Senate.) James Bovard found enough abuses in AmeriCorps to devote a whole chapter to it in his book Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years. Bovard found plenty of examples of AmeriCorps participants' wasting their time, engaging in liberal advocacy, and making wildly exaggerated claims about their accomplishments. In Buffalo, for example, members ran a program that paid children $5 for each toy gun turned in; and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center's AmeriCorps program tackles "society's last 'acceptable' prejudice: anti-gay bias." About half of AmeriCorps members are involved in tutoring and mentoring programs, and Clinton praised participants for having "taught millions of children to read"; but this homage is dubious, given the lack of evidence that a single child is now literate because of AmeriCorps.

Proxies for Representative Jerry Lewis chimed in back in 2006:

But a spokesman for Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., suggested that other lawmakers would be happy to see the NCCC go.

"This Congress has never been a fan of AmeriCorps," said spokesman John Scofield, calling the NCCC "very costly and poorly administered."

Asked if it would hurt to pull volunteers out of the Gulf Coast at this time, Scofield said, "We've spent $85 billion on assistance for the Gulf, I don't know if these reductions would have any impact on that at all."

Yeah, how has that whole New Orleans thing turned out? I'm sure that the answer gives the people in Iowa and all of the other affected areas a great deal of comfort to know that the Republican Party is so dedicated to making sure there are programs to help them out when disaster strikes.

More Flood Coverage

Some of the pictures below the fold are older, but these are by no means the best or the most compelling. I'm just including them for casual interest. Is this story getting enough play? Too much?

As Iowa City hoped to elude the worst damage, the state had a multi-front battle on its hands. State officials warned of problems ahead for a string of towns in southeast Iowa along the Mississippi River, led by Burlington, a key railroad hub.

"It's likely that we will see major and serious flooding on every part of the southeastern border of our state from New Boston and down," Gov. Chet Culver said. "We are taking precautionary steps, we are evacuating where necessary, but that is going to be the next round here."

President Bush shows his concern for the people of Iowa by giving the Pope a picture of the two of them together:



Meanwhile, regular Americans do whatever they can to keep from being drowned:



Cedar Rapids IA:



Charles City IA:



Cedar Rapids IA:



Palo IA:



Cedar Rapids IA:



THIS photo identified as being taken in Springfield, MO:



It turns out, Springfield DID see flash flooding over the weekend:

The Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management is asking property owners to report damage from the June 13 flood event, to assist the county with preliminary damage assessments.

Reports may be filed online at www.greenecountyoem.org, Tuesday, June 17, through Thursday, June 19. The Office of Emergency Management will also staff a Disaster Hotline at 829-6200 on Wednesday, June 18, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., to fill out reports for individuals unable to access Internet.

Property owners are encouraged to report damage to residential, commercial or agricultural property, including structural damage and damaged items within flood-affected structures.

“We have received scattered reports of the extent of the flood damage throughout the area, and we’re really hoping to get more concrete numbers,” said Ryan Nicholls, Director of the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management. “We will pull this data together quickly and gather a more complete situational awareness to determine how much farther we need to go down the process of damage assessment.”

University of Iowa Threatened By Flood Waters

DAVE SCHWARZ/GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

The campus of the University of Iowa is being protected by a makeshift levee that has taken about all of the stress it can take:

Iowa City, Ia. -- University of Iowa President Sally Mason said efforts to sandbag and defend the campus from rising flood waters will be completed this afternoon.

After that, Mason said, little more can or will be done.

“This is our last effort,” said Mason, surveying the massive sand-bagging effort this afternoon on Madison Street, one block east of the Iowa River.

University officials estimated that one-eighth of the campus already has been directly impacted by flood water, with an expected crest of the swollen Iowa River on Tuesday.

“We should be done by 5 this afternoon, and then all we can do is wait,” Mason said today. “We will have done all we can.”

The Iowa River had caused major damage by Saturday even though the crest was at least two days away. The river is expected to reach 33 feet to 34 feet late Monday or early Tuesday, far above the 25-foot flood stage.

Only one bridge connecting the east and west sides of downtown Iowa City remained open, and officials said it may have to be closed this weekend.

The Iowa River surged another 2 feet in just 12 hours into Friday, forcing the University of Iowa to shut down the power plant that provides service to the University of Iowa Hospitals and other university buildings.

A massive sandbagging operation was taking place on Madison St. on the U of I campus. Hundreds of students and volunteers turned out to help.

ANDREA MELENDEZ/THE REGISTER

Map of affected area:

Astonishing Pictures out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa

UPDATE 12:24AM - Per Jim in Raleigh:

I don't want to violate her copyright, but he alerted us to the work of some relatives in the Cedar Rapids area--her photos are astoundingly better than anything I've seen out of the news organizations.

I won't reproduce--I'll link to her site.

And encourage everyone to have a look.

-----------


I've seen a lot of stories like this, but what they don't discuss or talk about is--what the hell is FEMA doing? Are they doing anything? Are they waiting? I've been trying to find out what they're doing for these folks, but I still can't find an answer, beyond putting up a phone number. And, yes--people in the midwest are more likely to be self-reliant--I get that.

Link and story removed--we're honoring the boycott on Associated Press stories.

Basically, people in Cedar Rapids, Iowa are running out of clean drinking water because they've been inundated with flood waters.

Two more photos after the jump...all of Cedar Rapids.

Flood Photos #3

Several hundred thousand people have been evacuated from rising flood waters. Areas untouched by the devastating flood of 1993 have been underwater for days. Will FEMA show up and help this time?

Cedar Rapids IA:



Cedar Rapids IA:



Maysville IN:



Austin MN:


Des Moines IA:


Decatur IL:

Iowans Flee From Rising Flood Waters

We've been trying to watch this pretty closely--we both have people in the general area of where all of this is happening (besides, we care about farm country as a matter of pride) and it is getting harder and harder to ignore what these folks are going through:

More than 3,900 homes were evacuated and part of downtown Cedar Rapids was under water Thursday as Iowa splashed through another day of flooding.

Officials estimated that 100 blocks in Cedar Rapids were under water.

"We're seeing very substantial flooding," said Craig Hanson, the city's public works maintenance manager.

Cedar Rapids' problems came a day after frantic sandbagging enabled the upstream cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo to narrowly avoid widespread flooding.

Despite several days spent preparing for the approaching high water, Cedar Rapids couldn't avoid widespread evacuations. Rescuers had to use boats to reach many of the residents stranded in nearly 4,000 homes.

Some pictures after the jump...













Iowa is getting pummeled. On top of the flooding, they suffered a devastating loss of life last night when a tornado ripped through a Boy Scout camp and killed four teenagers.

Downtown Cedar Rapids is under five to six feet of water. The storm sewers are pouring water into the streets instead of draining it away. A railroad bridge collapsed a few hours ago, and an earthen levee gave way on the Cedar River and caused ten thousand people to be evacuated from their homes.

Thousands are without electricity, and 911 services are down.

The bridge that collapsed had been loaded with 18 gravel-filled cars, an attempt to weigh it down against the rising river, said Jeff Woods, a spokesman for the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway Company. "There's nothing left to see" of the bridge, Woods said.

All exits to downtown Cedar Rapids are closed, and traffic on the interstate has slowed to about twenty miles per hour. The county jail has been evacuated and the prisoners transfered to state prisons until the jail is safe for habitation once more.

The governor has declared 55 of the 99 counties in the state to be disaster areas.

Flood Photos #2

All photos from the Associated Press:

Columbus, IN:



Iowa City, IA:





Preston, MN:



Lake Delton, WI:



Elnora, IN:

Flood Photos

All photos from the Associated Press:

Preston, MN:


Mason City, IA:


Wabash River, IN:


Lake Delton, WI:


Edwardsport, IN:


Cambridge, IA:

Another American City Under Water

From one of the diaries at DailyKos.com:

Darrel in Iowa:

I am in Mason City. Our levees broke Sunday morning. Flood stage is 7 foot and waters are now at 19 feet. Hundreds of homes and businesses are underwater. The City's water plant was flooded and the entire city of 30,000 is without potable water. A couple of hours ago the main electric substation flooded and failed and much of the city is without power. People remain in flooded homes. Early tonight I saw people wandering the streets not knowing where to go. There are entrie areas of the city with NO emergency personnel on hand.

NOBODY from the outside has come to help. Our local first responders are exhausted and overwhelmed. Small rural towns downstream tonight are being devasted. Levees everywhere are failing. Calls for help in these small towns have been unmet. Portions of our local guard are in Iraq.

The homeland has been left unprotected and people are suffering horribly.

Pictures of the flooding:



Near Des Moines:



[One thing I've noticed is that, while searching for photos, there are many, many more people who want to shoot jerky, grainy, out of focus video with cheap phone cameras or with digital cameras. That's nice, but it looks like crap. The YouTube-ification of the world means photos are passe and crap video of shit that you sort of can make out is de rigueur. Hence, there are not many dramatic or decent photos. Besides, if your town is flooding, you are probably more interested in saving yourself than taking a picture we can reproduce here.]

Here is what they're saying in the local newspaper:

The Winnebago River made history Sunday and left misery in its wake.

The river, which weaves through Mason City, climbed to a record 18.57 feet, tumbling over its banks, flooding homes, forcing residents to evacuate, shutting down the city’s water treatment plant and closing all city restaurants.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, the river level was 18.57 feet; the previous record was 15.7 feet set in 1933. Flood stage is 7 feet.

Heavy rains late Saturday and early Sunday morning — more than 5 inches over the two-day period — started the river rising.

“It went from 13 to 17 feet very quickly,” said Brent Trout, Mason City’s city administrator. “We’re dealing with a record event here.”

Gov. Chet Culver issued a disaster declaration which covered 31 Iowa counties including Butler, Cerro Gordo, Franklin, Floyd and Worth in North Iowa.

The governor’s proclamation activates Iowa’s individual disaster assistance program. Additionally, federal agencies have been contacted, according to Culver’s office.

Late Sunday afternoon Mason City Mayor Roger Bang set a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., except for employment or essential purposes.

Residents were told that anyone in violation would be charged with refusal to obey orders.

As the river left its banks and the levy system failed, water made its way to basements, across roadways and a major evacuation effort ensued.

The Mason City fire and police departments used a boat to help residents from their already flooded homes.

Several hundred residents were also evacuated throughout the morning.

Officials did not have an exact number of homes that were evacuated, but said the evacuation appeared to be complete by mid-afternoon.

“We believe all the homes that need to be evacuated at this point, have been evacuated,” said Trout.