mornin’ peterr!

Morning, jayt!

Morning Peterr — thanks so much for putting this together for us. There’s a big 10K race here in town and, at the moment, someone is blasting Michael Jackson singing Billy Jean outside. I’m not certain if that is meant to be inspirational for the runners here or what…but it’s unintentionally hilarious on my first cuppa cofee, I have to say.

Is the state National guard back from Iraq? Are all the guardsmen back from the flood states and soon to be flood states?

I’m not certain if that is meant to be inspirational for the runners here or what…

That would make *me* run…. lol

Good morning all. Just dropping in as I’ve got trees to buy & other stuff to do.

My country house property includes river frontage on the Wallkill River. It floods in the spring, sometimes including bridge closures, but hasn’t swept any bridge away for decades. My river banks are now about 20′ but last year I did lose my park bench & a wooden ramp over a swampy spot, as the river got up over the bank & swept them both away. I’ve also once been around for the ice break up, which is awesome to observe. So I’m aware of the power of water.

To let people not on the email list know, next Sunday (June 22) there’s a FDL BBQ at my house in New Paltz. Let me know if you want to attend. About 15 as of now. Leave me a comment in this thread with your email & I’ll check back later, or send me an email at rosannecahn at aol dot com.

Each May, SF has a big race called “Bay to Breakers” where folks dress up in costume (or run sans costume!), and that music would fit right in. For anywhere else, though, “unintentionally hilarious” seems about right.

Oh good lord — they’ve moved on to Rick Astley!

Good Morning friends.

As I sit in my nice, dry house and think about the news over the last few weeks, the cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China, the drought in CA, the floods in the mid west and now another earthquake, this time in Japan I can’t remember a time when so many catastrophic things all happened at the same time. I’m sure it probably did happen, but not on the evening news.

That and $4+/gallon gas, $5 for a 5 lb bag of flour at the store yesterday, corn fields under water, salmonella in the tomatoes, some kind of disease hitting the FL citrus trees, the mind boggles.

It feels ominous.

The Iowa governor has called out some 2000 Army Guardsmen, so they’ve got at least that many back from Iraq.

Time magazine had a recent article on how to survive a disaster that might have some additional information for everyone. Made for an interesting read…

The “corn fields under water” part is really going to hit the rest of us outside of Iowa. The more this affects the planting now and harvest down the road, the more it will drive up all kinds of prices this fall.

Been “listening” in on exchanges between my fellow team members in Iowa about the flooding; heartbreaking that we can’t do anything for them.

You can catch their reporting as they continue to work in spite of troubling conditions in their home towns; at least one of the team members is in flooded Cedar Rapids.

They’ve been joking grimly about fundies who claim the flooding was caused by Cedar Rapids’ permissiveness towards gays, liberals.

I just returned home from teaching in Des Moines. Highway 380 and 151 closed as I was driving. A section of I80 was almost underwater and they were going to close it yesterday. It is an awesome sight seeing all the cornfields and little league baseball fields underwater, and cars streaming out of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to evacuate. The weather underground is calling for more rain this weekend.

A barge broke loose from the flooding on Monday and hit the major bridge going from Dubuque, Iowa to Illinois. It was closed for days. I saw National Guard sandbagging.

The whole food chain will be affected. Get ready for sticker shock at the grocery store for the foreseeable future.

Which means those of us with means need to be helping out the food pantries in our areas big time.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen puts it like this: “Unless you are out helping or evacuating, stay off the roads.”

That about says it for the current state of that city.

Yes – and sticker shock will start very soon, since shipping is going to be impacted by the flooding. Will take more fuel and more time to get food stuffs moved across the country.

Would be a good time to look into local foodstuffs, become a locavore if you aren’t already.

Peterr,

Thanks for this marvelous post…news that’s needed more attention. I am in rural eastern NC……an area that suffered mightily during Hurricane Floyd — not from the winds but from devestating inland flooding (the ground was already soaked from previous storm systems during that fall).

I am astonished how long it took people (and the land) to recover from that tragedy.

Have lived in DC and am currently a temporary expat from NYC. It seems unless a tragedy happens in one of those two places (or it’s a slow news cycle), this kind of story gives short shrift in the MSM.

Plan to forward your links to many.

Thanks again.

I am astonished at the lack of commentary by the corporate media that this and other devastation may indeed be the result of climate change…

Al Gore– where are you and the scientists?

absolutely. We’ve got our garden put in but not with all the kinds of things that we eat. Which reminds me to get going and get to the Saturday growers market in town. We have a couple of local produce markets that we like. Considering the prices that will be coming at the supermarkets, the local producers prices will seem reasonable. That will be something different.

I’ve been checking out the stories and such at the link to the Iowa Independent that you provided. The YouTube of preparations and conditions in Des Moines is quite something.

Yeah, I just made it home between tornadoes. We’ve far outpaced the summer of ‘93, the biggest flood year before now. This after enduring the snowiest winter on record.

I live in eastern Iowa, and from everything I’ve heard around here – we’re fucked. (pardon my French) 55 counties declared State Disaster Areas, thousands upon thousands of acres of crop land underwater, infrastructure wiped out or too dangerous to use…

The economic impact is going to radiate through the nation for months, if not years. The personal impact is hard to measure, but… it’s really, really bad here, folks.

‘morning all, southern Wisconsin checking in here and things are just terrible. We (mr. m and I) are fine…basement only had about 2 inches of wet icky stuff and now it’s under control with fans and pumps. But so many small communities are totally flooded, farms under water, etc. it’s just tragic. The interstate that connects Chicago to Minneapolis is closed as well as one direction from Madison to Milwaukee and the Gov just asked for a Federal disaster declaration.

I feel for these people and their interrupted lives. The bigger picture is scary as well, from an agricultural side. No to very little corn/soybeans this year, from much of this part of the state I’d guess. And the small veggie farmers? They don’t get any help from the Feds because they’re too small.

Even the most ardent proponents of climate change will tell you that it’s hard to pin a specific local weather event (floods like these from a bad spring rainy season, for instance, or a given hurricane) on global warming. These scientists have enough problems being taken seriously over what they can demonstrate pretty conclusively for them to comment on events like these floods.

It doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t a factor, mind you — just that the link is not easily demonstrable.

This sounds like a Katrinaesque tragedy (re the economics)in America’s breadbasket.

Fascinating that the PTB in the press won’t leave Iowa during the runup to their primary but won’t come now.

Thanks for the update. Are you personally are high and dry?

Flooding? Why should we care about flooding? Don;t you know that TIM RUSSERT DEAD!!!! And that’s THE most important story of them all. Last night’s NBC Nightly News was given up ENTIRELY to Tim Russetrt. The floods, the tornados, the price of gas, Iraq — everything you can name took a back seat to a cascade of tears for that useless meda where.

mission accomplished…..all babies in large carrier

For those who may have missed it, Christy had a great post up on Thursday about The Nation and Brave New Film’s most recent installment of This Brave Nation, with Bonnie Raitt and Dolores Huerta.

“Choose to act,” said Christy then, and it’s the same call today.

bread and circus’s

Two years ago, in our area (southern tier of New york), we had several days of big rain and the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers flooded terribly. There were literally houses and mobile homes floating down the river and getting caught underneath bridges. The whole thing went on for weeks. Two years later, there are still people trying to get help from FEMA, trying to get their lives back in order, and trying to get what’s left of their homes repaired. By the way, many of these folks were NOT living in even the ‘500 year flood plain’.

Good Morning Peterr, Christy, and Firedogs -

has Attaturk checked in anywhere – saw a brief comment from him yesterday afternoon as he was anticipating evacuation orders – anyone ?

I hope the mods get you quick.

I heard from him last night:

As long as the levies hold we should be okay, the water is slowly receding.

Cedar Rapids (Iowa’s 2nd Largest City) and Iowa City (Home of the U of Iowa) got it much worse.

(bows) Konnichiwa, sadlyyes

Ready for your adventure this morning?

It’s astonishing and dispiriting that FEMA’s effectiveness, professionalism could disappear so quickly.

By all accounts, the agency in the James Lee Witt days of 1999 responded brilliantly here in NC. What will it take to fix this vital organization?

Would love to hear some specific, direct questions asked of the candidates about this issue.

Peterr. Would you mind saying what was your KC congregation? I was in a great one in the Plaza area; it is very active in its outreach, mission, etc. Thanks

thanks Rev, good to hear

I’m ok but some of my neighbors weren’t so lucky. The pipes in our town couldn’t handle the water and backed up quite fiercely. The river never topped the dikes but there’s acres of flooded land around us.

I posted over a hundred (zipped) pictures at The Zen Cabin. We’re very fortunate compared to the southern towns and some places in the neighboring states.

I’d rather not — I try to keep my writing here separate from the parishes I’ve been associated with, for their sake and for mine.

But there are a lot of socially-active churches in KC, including many Lutheran churches who are affiliated with Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry.

When I lived in Oregon, two disasters one in December 1995 high wind storm and then the flood of Feb 1996….. many had not recovered from the first when the the second hit. The wind storm had winds from 100-120 mph…. 100ft fir trees toppled, bashed into homes, blocked roads and knocked out power all over the area…… At that time I had my own three kids and three foster kids(between 13 & 19) and we were without power for 5 days (OMG no hot showers).

Having a wood stove, coleman lamps that run on propane, used the camp stove and the top of the wood stove to cook. Made a big pot of soup that I kept going & adding to over time.

The flood was another story….. I lived on high ground but the everyday things like seeing my PCP and getting mail was effected since both were under 10-12 ft of water. My PCP office is setup with everything on wheels and ready to be moved out….. as this section of Oregon City has flooded before….. they now have two lines on one wall …. the 1964 flood line and the 1996 flood line. There were times it would take me 2 plus hrs to complete a usual 30-40 minute commute…. Bus lines were not running, trains were too full, roads were out and navigating routes with the 100’s of others.

The comparison pictures you put up are quite something! Thanks.

The mods?

found this post over on kos on the flooding in Cedar Rapids…photos included
“Unprecedented.” Iowa Flooding – w/ photos *UPDATED*

Another disaster in California is the fires all over Northern CA….. Paradise was evacuated….. think on that a minute…..

Good morning pups, hey sadly, glad to hear your wee creatures have been rescued. Keep us posted on how they’re doing?

From today’s WaPo story on the flooding:

Carpenter Phil Leidigh, 53, a Cedar Rapids native, wondered where homeless people downtown would go and said flooding hit low-income areas of the city the hardest.

“Where the flooding is, it hit the people who are already struggling, who worked their whole lives to get where they are and now have to start over,” he said. “It could take years for the city to recover. They have been trying to revive the downtown, but now who knows if Debbie’s Ice Cream and these other little businesses will ever come back.”

Factory workers stood on overpasses to survey the damage and wondered whether they would still have jobs.

Wendy Hatch stared out at the swollen Cedar River and the souvenir factory where she works, which was half-submerged in water. Hatch said Norwood-Souvenir employees will learn their workplace’s fate at a meeting on Monday. She expects she may be transferred to another location, in Minnesota. On Thursday night, the flooding stopped five blocks from her home.

“We were sweating,” said Hatch, 41. “But we made it, we survived.”

This is only the start of a very long summer for these folks. Once the waters go down, there will be a whole lot still to deal with — and as usual, it’s the poorest folks who get hit the hardest.

Peterr -

Might a fourth option to turn to in times of disasters be the American Friends Service Committee?

We can see smoke in the air from a forest fire 2 hours south of here. It darkened the moon.

its done,alls well,and Dirty Angus McGes likes them

McGee

Greetings from soggy Iowa. Thanks for this post. What has been remarkable for me is how calm and level headed we Iowans have reacted. No major drowning deaths or wrecks while everyone pitched in.

Thanks for thwe plug for Lutheran relief. My church has tornado funds, immigration funds, and flood relief funds all going less than 60 miles away.

“Sorry, File Not Found.” 404

And who might Dirty Angus McGee be?

The impression I got yesterday from watching the presser with Iowan officials standing with Michael “Skeletor” Chertoff is DHS is just getting in the way of things! LOL

the deep brown one roaming the garage i tired ,take nap

Imagine my surprise.

They do good work on a variety of issues, but I don’t see anything on their site about flood relief. Do you have something you could link to?

And if anyone else has other groups to suggest, feel free to post a link and give them a plug!

ill take photo later,im gonna take a nap

But “Skeletor” is Da Man! LOL

During the big Rodeo-Chediski Fire in Arizona 2002, FEMA rented a floor in the office building I worked in as their base while working on the disaster relief. They were all over the area, cafe’s, elevators….. and lots of overheard conversations……

This was the Clinton FEMA ….. very professional and probably one of the last well run disasters….. This is when BushCo planned to put FEMA under Homeland Security, bust their union and PRIVATIZE IT….. these workers were middle age, had worked for FEMA or other agencies for decades….. All were working and calculating the number of years worked to equate if they were eligible for retirement and what other agency they could transfer to so they would NOT loose their benefits….. From what I could gather, there was a mass exodus of those seasoned and qualified disaster FEMA employees when BushCo moved it into DHS….

Thanks for the heads up.

o/t (but I am a recovering Abramoffolic afterall :D)

hey Christie ! did you see the news this week that the Judge has set a sentencing date ? September 4th

ooh money . . .

While the government anticipates that Mr. Abramoff’s cooperation in the form of possible testimony will continue for the foreseeable future, the parties believe that they are in a position to inform the court about the full scope of his misconduct and cooperation,

ol Jack rsvp’ing Maverilicious little tea party – tee hee

dengre – dkos

http://www.kmbc.com/video/16592002/

This is a video from a Kansas city station, covering Thursday night’s tornado which hit Manhattan, Kansas. The couple who are interviewed about 3:30 in (son, Eli), are my wife’s cousin and her husband. Thankfully they are ok, but their house, as you can see, is trashed. Hard to watch, when you know the victims.

As horrific as these world wide disasters are they are reinforcing the notion that communities are best qualified to handle such situations. In the case of DHS our experience seems to show that the only thing they’re any good at is arresting folks. Helping folks just doesn’t seem to be in their skill set.

(((((PeteCO family)))))

But “Skeletor” is Da Man! LOL

There is so much to look forward to in an Obama administration, but getting rid of Chertoff and fixing or disposing of ‘Homeland’ Security is at the top of my list.

um, ‘Christy‘ (how long I been readin’ here – blerrgghh)

CNN is live from Cedar Rapids right now: “local officials ask that the water system be used for drinking purposes only.”

Personally….. I would like to never hear the word HOMELAND…. ever again…. the adoption of language used by another empire is over the top… The use of language from the book 1984 is another area that I would like removed from general use….

Exactly. They seem to be using disasters now as training for Martial Law. That’s how I see it and I wondered yesterday if the officials were getting that feeling too. I’m sure they were thinking, “What the hell!!!”.

STTPinOhio, Obama is going to do a lot of good stuff when he gets in the White House. I read somewhere that he’s going to go down through the signing statements & executive orders to see if any laws were broken. I hope he does! Wow. I would love to see him hold a presser stating, “We have issued an arrest warrant for Dick Cheney & George Bush. We also have the CIA undercover in Paraguay. They can run but they can’t hide!”.

I’m dreaming again, but you know, it’s dreams such as this one that makes getting up every day worth it. ;-)

I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids. Many of my clan still live there. My children are attending the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

It really is a tragedy. But, the people there are strong, resiliant and resourceful. These prosperous communities with a little help will overcome this.

The fields of eastern Iowa and western Illinois are some of the most, if not the most, productive land in the world. The grain crops here have been seriously compromised. As you may or may not know, the world’s grain stocks are low. Corn which was well under $2.00/bu two years ago is now pushing $7.00/bu. Look for it now to go to $10.00/bu.

What this means is much higher food prices in America and starvation in the third world. This is the real tragedy of these floods.

I see these links on AFSC’s site: http://www.afsc.org/issues/issue.php?id=374 (relief efforts) and http://www.afsc.org/issues/issue.php?id=327 (displaced people)

I’m so glad they’re okay. ;-)

am drafting a FISA/STFU Steny post set for Obamaworld – and in doing so am orienting myself as to the tone and flavuh of the place

was very pleased to see that community go beyond a front page ’statement’ they are using their campaign network (online and otherwise) as resource for helping the Iowa/Midwest folks. volunteer calls, equipment needed, donation drop offs, etc. very kewl

That’s what I saw as well. Clicking on the link to relief programs brings up lots of peace education efforts aimed at Iraq, the middle east, Africa, and Vietnam — but nothing specifically about relief from these floods.

(Not that those aren’t issues worth addressing or folks worth supporting, but it’s a different subject from the current flooding.)

And EG @ 66;
Thanks. We are headed out there over July 4th. They’re strong people, they’ll get through it, I’m sure.

Things like this make you think about what’s really important in life. Hope they’ll be ok.

Off to finish the painting of the bedroom upstairs for my kid who will be house sitting for me….. during my vacation….. baseboards…. yuck…

Have a good and safe Saturday…

That was the point, to make government NOT WORK. So that the privateers could come in and scarf up all that federal cabbage because the government doesn’t work.

I still think Katrina was a political crime against humanity.

-G

Hi all.

Always had the feeling that the possibility of environmental disasters were never a focus of the booshies, just the kind they can blame on “evildoers”.

not to quibble but, based on recent experience, baseboards are piece-a cake compared to ceilings – oogh.

(((katymine)))

Meanwhile, as John McCain blabbers on about the ‘great surge success’ Afghanistan is coming unglued. 4 US troops reported dead today. May deaths in Afghanistan surpassed that of Iraq.

Also the reports of the US drone attack in Pakistan is cause for great consternation. Reportedly Pakistan military were fighting alongside the Taliban.

-G

and then we pause to appreciate the fact that we HAVE baseboards and ceilings.

Thank you for wonderful post and comments Peterr and pups.

A world of hurt out there. Can hardly wait till Nero leaves the building.

And, (OT but I can’t resist), Rudy Giuiliani is now offering to appear at GOP candidate fundraisers…but for a price. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06…..ref=slogin

continuing, wouldn’t you agree? Unbelievable to me that dubya can just “forget” and move on mentally while so many are still homeless and suffering.

and there is that no small matter of the prison break of 1100, 400 of which id’d as Taliban

although I confess to all of you whenever I hear any bunch of terrorists on the loose ! story, I always worry it’s Dick Cheney loading up on the front end for a future ‘event’

is that his version of “noblesse oblige“? How nice of him.

Either that or another proof that the body of the GOP has a number of parasites attached to it.

When I was in New Orleans in April the spillway was opened for the first time in 30 years. Flooding in the midwest was the cause. This flooding is much worse. The tragedy will bleed all the way down the Mississippi.

David is upstairs. (Hope that linky works…)

Yes, they are in for something.

Mr Robert has a new piece in the Independent.

Just an thought. We ask the future of our country to put their lives on the line for the whims of a nest of ideologues. Those in power make every attempt to suppress the heavy price millions are paying for their folly. But in death the flood of praise goes to a single wealthy influential “good corporate citizen.” The young African-American from New York and the children in Mosul go unnoticed. Why is that?

eye of the beholder, heh. ick.

Shuttle touchdown

“Do you remember Rick Astley?
He had a big fat hit, it was ghastly…”

You-Tube link (video just under 11 minutes), from yesterday I think – Iowa City, Coralville, Cedar Rapids flooding, mostly taken from helicopter. Via an Iowa TV station news team.

The costs of glocal warming:
The spring snow melt occurs earlier and more rapidly causing flooding and loss of precious water storage for later irrigation.