Two Year Flood Anniversary

10Jun10

I’m sure to all those living in the Corridor who were affected or who are still rebuilding, it is hard to imagine the epic flood of 2008 occurred two years ago. I arrived in Cedar Rapids just a few days after the first anniversary of the 2008 flood. One year ago, I arrived in Cedar Rapids having no idea what to expect for my year of service. I wasn’t sure where the city was in the rebuilding process or what type of work I would be doing. The first few months I worked in the field rebuilding houses I saw a lot of devastation. However, there were signs of rebirth. You could see a few rebuilt houses on random blocks around the affected area. Yet, there were plenty of blocks that remain completely untouched. It was immediately clear there was still a lot of work left.

When I first arrived to work at the Community Recovery Center, the converted warehouse was bustling with activity all hours of the day. We had dozens of summer VISTAs, a new batch of year-long members and hundreds of volunteers coming in and out looking for new assignments, getting sweaty and dirty mucking and rebuilding. After the constant excitement of the summer months’ things began to calm down and we settled in to a new normal. The summer VISTAs left, the volunteers went into hibernation, and I sought shelter in the office joining the communications team. However, we had a solid group of fearless field VISTAs who braved the single digit temperatures and continued to work tirelessly rebuilding the community. Soon we all began to notice small changes in the community. There were less mucking and gutting assignments and more rebuilding occurring in the houses we were working on. Then slowly we began receiving fewer calls. We realized that we had worked ourselves out of, work.

The Linn Area Long Term Rebuilding Coalition recently announced to the public that the Community Recovery Center would be closing after this summer. This doesn’t mean the city is completely rebuilt or the work will end, but it does signify progress in the community. The closing of the CRC is bittersweet for me. I will be ending my service before the CRC officially closes but we no longer have the staff we use to, and the building once full of activity is sometimes eerily quiet. And while the work in Cedar Rapids will continue with organization such as Block by Block (we are lucky that many of our VISTAs will continue their work with this organization), it is still hard to see it all end.

On Sunday, June 13th the city will be celebrating the two-year anniversary from that devastating flood. I am hoping that everyone truly celebrates this milestone because the city while not fully recovered is a lot better off then it was even a year ago. I am just happy I was able to be a part of it.