City pins hope on 10 miles of quickly erected flood barriers
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Facing their second-largest flood in city history, Cedar Rapids leaders and residents pinned their hopes Monday on a 10-mile system of quickly erected flood barriers to protect government buildings, homes and businesses in Iowa’s second largest city.
Crews scrambled to build the floodwall over the weekend to block the rapidly rising Cedar River because, despite years of discussions, officials haven’t been able to secure funding for permanent flood barriers following a devastating flood in 2008.
“The city had eight years to do this but decided to throw up a temporary system in three days,” said Jim Soukup, 30, who sat on a pile of sandbags outside his parents’ home in the Czech Village neighbourhood, which was largely empty after thousands of residents heeded a voluntary evacuation ahead of the river’s anticipated crest on Tuesday.
Soukup said he and his father would guard the home — which had several feet of flood water in 2008 — to avoid the prospect of looting.