The other day my husband and I were talking about when he’d come downtown to have lunch with me some day soon.
We were several thoughts into the conversation before we both stopped dead in our verbal tracks and looked at each other. That won’t be happening any time soon, we both realized at the same time. Bricks, Mr. Beans, The Blue Strawberry, Brueggers and every other yummy lunch spot in downtown all have a lot of work ahead of them before they open again, if they ever do.
I’m sure there will countless other conversations like that all around the city this summer and perhaps for years to come.
It brings a tear to my eyes just thinking about it. I drove through downtown the other day for the first time on my way to the FEMA mobile stations to talk to those displaced by the flood. I was crying before I got to 3rd Street. Everything turned inside out, tables, chairs, office equipment, everything littering the sidewalks outside once busy businesses. Downtown was teeming, but not with people walking to and fro, on their lunch break or headed to a meeting. Instead disaster relief workers wearing hazmat suits and masks piled muck-soaked items in front of store fronts. As a writer, it pains me to say this, but words can not express. Pictures and seeing the devastation with your own eyes are the only way to fully understand. And even then it’s hard to wrap your head around.
I have no doubt that this this city will recover. But the Cedar Rapids as we once knew and loved it, will never exist again. There will undoubtedly be business and homeowners that won’t be able to afford to reopen or rebuild. The landscape of this city is forever changed.
Postponed events like the Freedom Festival are obvious examples of how summer in Cedar Rapids will be different. No fireworks for the Fourth of July. I can’t imagine. But, there are other ways our lives, even those of us fortunate enough to not have been directly affected by the flood waters, will be different.
The people I spoke with at Hog Wild Days in Hiawatha surprised me with some of their answers to my question: “How has the flood affected your summer plans?”
One woman was planning on renting an apartment this summer. Now every place she calls asks if she’s a flood victim and she feels bad taking a roof from someone who needs it more than she. Another guy is on competitive ski teams. His season is in jeopardy if not cancelled entire due because the rivers where they practice and compete are the same ones that just tore through our towns.
Some people said they didn’t think the flood had affected them.
Maybe not yet, but I bet it will. Each and every one of us are going to feel this flood for years to come.
Cedar Rapids Gazette organizes plan to do away with democracy in Cedar Rapids.
“Elected leaders will have to put their trust in other community leaders and delegate authority.”
THE GAZETTE’S EDITORIAL-June 24, 2008
‘New normal’ must shape our recovery
Grand Forks, N.D., is a source of both hope and daunting reality for the
flood-weary residents of Cedar Rapids.
In 1997, the city of 53,000 people was inundated by the Red River, which
crested a whopping 26 feet above flood stage. The flood swamped 90 percent of
the city and affected 100 percent of Grand Forks residents. And if that wasn’t
bad enough, a fire also destroyed 11 downtown buildings.
More than a decade later, Grand Forks is an example of what recovery can
achieve. Its population, total employment and taxable income are all higher than
they were in 1997.
Its downtown area, struggling even before the flood, has been revitalized, new
levees are in place and its riverfront has been transformed into protective
parkland.
A delegation of Cedar Rapids business, development and govern ment leaders
jetted to Grand Forks last week to hear that city’s tale of recovery as our
community comes to terms with its own watery disaster.
The message they heard? “You can’t get back to normal. You have to have a new
normal,” said Chuck Peters, president and CEO of Gazette Communications and
organizer of the trip.
Getting to that “new normal,” as Grand Forks leaders tell it, will require an
unprecedented level of organization, quick decision-making, thickened skin for
weathering sharp conflicts, supreme patience and realistic expectations. Grand
Forks officials say they were required to make “50 years’ worth of decisions in
five years” and take heat for unpopular but necessary choices.
Handling that crush of urgent decisions will necessitate abandoning the
drawn-out, consensus-building process that usually preceded big civic
decision-making before the flood. Elected leaders will have to put their trust
in other community leaders and delegate authority. They will still make the
final calls, but there will not be time for them to make every call.
Based on Grand Forks’ experience, the first item on the agenda will be
creating a new flood-protection plan — a process that is certain to be fraught
with conflict. Damaged neighborhoods may not be rebuilt in their current forms
because more land likely will be needed for expanded flood protection. Downtown
redevelopment also is sure to spark disputes, as it did in Grand Forks.
Picking which residences and businesses stay or go will be among the most
difficult choices our leaders have ever faced. But they must be prepared to act
quickly and decisively, without fear of political consequences. Several city
council members and Grand Forks’ mayor lost their seats during the recovery, but
the decisions they made helped ensure a city’s future.
Relief money will flow from federal and state government sources, but the
heavy lifting will be done by local people and institutions. The city, because
it will be the conduit for government funding, must play a leading role. But
private business and organizations also must be given key roles for recovery and
rebuilding to succeed.
Cedar Rapids will be tested by adversity, both public and personal.
Mental health issues, substanceabuse problems and domestic-abuse incidents are
likely to increase in number after our initial can-do, crisis-fueled adrenaline
fades into the numbing daily work of recovery. It’s important for local leaders
to organize fun activities and celebrations to break up that stressful cycle.
And even as we sprint to recover, our leaders must emphasize patience and keep
our expectations realistic. Grand Forks leaders say it took three to five years
before they felt real progress was being made.
It took two years just to clear trash and debris.
But the product of all that pain is a Grand Forks that is, in many ways,
better than the one that flooded. And that’s the hope that will keep Cedar
Rapids running in the arduous marathon that lies ahead.
Grand Forks officials say they were required to make “50 years’ worth of
decisions in five years” and take heat for unpopular but necessary choices.