Jann's letter about the Iowa Floods
Jann ran the Iowa City Fencing Club (go hawks) along with her husband Ron (who happens to be the Olympic armorer for the US Fencing Team). Over the course of the 6 years I lived and fenced in Iowa, I got to be very close to both Ron and Jann. Quite by surprise, when I moved into my house on Burlington, we happened to be almost neighbors, with only one city block separating us.
I lived on the end of Burlington, which was one big hill. I lived towards the tail end of the hill, but not directly at the bottom. I have memories of heavy rains while I lived there where the end of the hill would start to pool water. Ron and Jan live near a creek that runs along the end of Burlington, so when I heard about the floods I assumed they had been affected.
6/18/2008
Hi Chris -good to hear from you! Ron and I are doing fine here- we are not personally affected. Luckily, the creek behind the house did not flood. The city however did not fare as well. Many residential and commercial areas were flooded including 19 university buildings -Hancher, Museum of Art Voxman etc. The sandbagging effort at Lindquist and the Library was phenomenal and no water got to them. It was amazing to see the community pull together. The water is receding very slowly and we're into the planning of the clean up stage - my department at the city is very involved so it is a bit chaotic here now. The reports and pictures we're getting from Cedar Rapids are unbelievable. I heard today that some of the 2nd stories of downtown buildings were flooded.
I lived on the end of Burlington, which was one big hill. I lived towards the tail end of the hill, but not directly at the bottom. I have memories of heavy rains while I lived there where the end of the hill would start to pool water. Ron and Jan live near a creek that runs along the end of Burlington, so when I heard about the floods I assumed they had been affected.
6/18/2008
Hi Chris -good to hear from you! Ron and I are doing fine here- we are not personally affected. Luckily, the creek behind the house did not flood. The city however did not fare as well. Many residential and commercial areas were flooded including 19 university buildings -Hancher, Museum of Art Voxman etc. The sandbagging effort at Lindquist and the Library was phenomenal and no water got to them. It was amazing to see the community pull together. The water is receding very slowly and we're into the planning of the clean up stage - my department at the city is very involved so it is a bit chaotic here now. The reports and pictures we're getting from Cedar Rapids are unbelievable. I heard today that some of the 2nd stories of downtown buildings were flooded.