(no subject)
It's been an anxious couple of days. I've never really felt like this place is home, but now that it's on the verge of utter destruction, I'm starting to feel like maybe I have built some sort of life here. Looking at pictures of a completely-flooded Coralville is freaking me out and making me so sad.
I spent yesterday at the library, getting the books I'll need for the summer, to write my dissertation, before they closed indefinitely. Volunteers and workers were frantically moving things out of the basement and onto the fourth and fifth floors. Tonight, J went down to the library and EPB lot to fill sandbags. Could there possibly be enough sand in the midwest to save the town?
And I've been looking at a map of the 500-year flood plains in IC, noticing that the water comes a lot closer to our apartment than I previously thought. We're not evacuating yet, but it's becoming a distinct possibility. Even if the water doesn't get here, who knows how long the power/clean water/etc will last.
I'm not so good in times of near destruction. I was really looking forward to a quiet summer of dissertation work. I have this constant feeling of dread that we haven't seen the worst of it, and after looking at pictures of Cedar Rapids (and watching local news nonstop) I know that the worst really is still to come. I told J we should just strap the tv to the car and head to Vegas.
Kind of amusing: the only way to get between IC and Cedar Rapids at the moment (normally a 30 minute drive) is to drive 2 hours west to Des Moines, then back east.
My parents keep asking why I'm still in the midwest. My sister lives in Israel, but somehow I'm the one living in the dangerous area. Go figure.
I spent yesterday at the library, getting the books I'll need for the summer, to write my dissertation, before they closed indefinitely. Volunteers and workers were frantically moving things out of the basement and onto the fourth and fifth floors. Tonight, J went down to the library and EPB lot to fill sandbags. Could there possibly be enough sand in the midwest to save the town?
And I've been looking at a map of the 500-year flood plains in IC, noticing that the water comes a lot closer to our apartment than I previously thought. We're not evacuating yet, but it's becoming a distinct possibility. Even if the water doesn't get here, who knows how long the power/clean water/etc will last.
I'm not so good in times of near destruction. I was really looking forward to a quiet summer of dissertation work. I have this constant feeling of dread that we haven't seen the worst of it, and after looking at pictures of Cedar Rapids (and watching local news nonstop) I know that the worst really is still to come. I told J we should just strap the tv to the car and head to Vegas.
Kind of amusing: the only way to get between IC and Cedar Rapids at the moment (normally a 30 minute drive) is to drive 2 hours west to Des Moines, then back east.
My parents keep asking why I'm still in the midwest. My sister lives in Israel, but somehow I'm the one living in the dangerous area. Go figure.