Life in my former home state

[catherineldf]

The week wasn't so bad until I saw the Iowa coverage. Holy shit. I've been trying to get in touch with our friends down south of the border to make sure everyone's okay. So far, I've heard from evilroygato and she and her partner are safe and housed, provided their sump pump holds. Our friend Symone has a wet basement but is otherwise unscathed. Still waiting to hear from some others.
Per the University of Iowa website, most of the highways are closed and a lot of downtown is flooded, including the U. campus, which is right on the river.
Meanwhile in nearly completely flooded Cedar Rapids, local innovative and queer friendly arts organization CSPS/Legion Arts is flooded out. They've already started a fund to help Iowa artists impacted by the flooding - check it out and donate at http://www.legionarts.org/.
Des Moines just postponed Pride for a couple of months. It was scheduled for this weekend. :-(
I'll post more fundraising info as I get it. Sending concerned thoughts (and dollars) south...

Comments

[gismonda.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info, this is so devastating. :(

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

I can hardly believe the photos. :-(((
Are your folks and friends safe?

[gismonda.livejournal.com]

So far, yes. Family is in various stages of mucking out basements in north central Iowa. I do have one friend in CR I need to find out about, but she doesn't appear to live near the Cedar so I'm thinking she's not in the worst of it.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Excellent news (especially relative to the rest of it).
I just keep looking at the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City pictures in complete disbelief and wishing there was more I could do right now.

[urlgirl.livejournal.com]

I hope your friends and loved ones are OK, it looks terrible :(

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I hope so too. :-(((

yeah, it's pretty crazy down here

[evilroygato.livejournal.com]

we just had a tornado warning on top of everything else. It seems to have passed us by, however. So far the flooding is affecting the UI campus the most (here in Iowa City) but the waters are also not expected to crest until sometime Tuesday. Anything could happen between now & then.