I find it rather ironic that as I sit down to write this post, the sky is currently a nasty bluish-gray and thunder is rolling in the background. Apparently, Iowa is not yet done with the foul weather. I thought I would show you a few pictures from our weekend in Cedar Rapids, some that I took and some that my sister took when the water was still up. On the way home, we drove through Parkersburg, so I have BIG. AWFUL. TORNADO. pictures too. UNREAL.
This is my sister's house. This was during the height of the water, which has now, thankfully, gone down. (Which creates a whole new world of problems... slimey yucky problems) My brother in law is standing by the porch in this photo. He is about 6'-2" and the water is above his knees. The water filled their house up to the rafters of their basement. Brian said you could watch the mold grow on the ceiling boards when they were down there cleaning on Saturday. Eww.
This is... was Bills Bros. Freight Salvage Furniture Store. The water was so powerful by the river that it washed away the whole side of this building. I could be wrong, but I thought this was a pretty well built building. The big bad mer-wolf should not have been able to blow it down.
Now that the waters have receded, all of the homes and businesses in the effected areas have these huge and horribly depressing piles of their lost lives. Some of them are so tall that I don't know how people could even reach to add more stuff. My mom drove me around for a bit, because I wasn't allowed to help clean (I have asthma), and I spent most of the drive with my jaw on my chest and on the verge of tears. It's just so unbelievable.
And then, there was Parkersburg. It's been almost a month since the tornado hit and the town still looks like this. It was so disorienting driving through there, because half of the town is just gone. I used to drive through here every day when I worked in Cedar Falls and to see all these landmarks just gone, like they never even existed, made my brain hurt. It looks like its worse than Cedar Rapids, but I think that's because Parkersburg's wounds are laid open for all to see and Cedar Rapids' are still hidden, covered by the shells of barely standing homes.
I think my favorite thing about Iowa is that we are strong people. All over town in Cedar Rapids, their were signs saying, "We will rebuild!" "We will be back!" And in Parkersburg, there were already the shells of new homes in the midst of the rubble. It takes a lot to break us.
