WORLD> America
Floods swamp Iowa town; Drinking water near gone
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-14 11:22

A total of 176 patients — some of them frail, about 30 of them from a nursing home at the medical center — were moved to other hospitals in an all-night operation that was not completed until daybreak.

"Those poor people. They looked half-terrified and half-thankful that they had someplace to go where they could finally rest and be cared for," said Sonya Thornton, a technician at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, where many of the patients were taken. She was called into work at 2 a.m. to help with the evacuation.

Gov. Chet Culver declared 83 of the state's 99 counties disaster areas, a designation that helps speed aid and opens the way for loans and grants. The damage in Cedar Rapids alone was a preliminary $737 million, Fire Department spokesman Dave Koch said.

The drenching has also severely damaged the corn crop in America's No. 1 corn state and other parts of the Midwest at a time when corn prices are soaring. But officials said it was too soon to put a price tag on the damage.

At Cedar Rapids' Prairie High School, where 150 evacuees waited, people could be seen crying in the cafeteria while others watched flood coverage on TVs set up in the gym. Tables were lined with shampoo, toothpaste, contact lens solution and other items, and piles of clothes were separated by size.

At the school, Lisa Armstrong wept as she watched TV news footage of her own rescue. She saw herself climbing into a boat, and watched rescuers trying to coax her dog out of the house. They finally grabbed the animal and pulled it out.

"I didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was, and we should have got out when we were told to leave," she said. "I didn't think or imagine anything like that."

The shelter was the third stop for Don Webster and his family, after his mother-in-law's house and then a stepson's place. Holding his 4-year-old grandson, Leroy, he said he planned to stay for a few days, then "just pray and hope there's something when you go back."

Cedar Rapids warned people to conserve drinking water after the floodwaters knocked out electricity to all but one of the city's half-dozen or more wells. The one working well was protected by sandbags and generators that were pumping water away from it.

"If we lost that one we would be in serious trouble," Koch said. "We really need to reduce the amount of water we are using, even using paper plates, hand sanitizer."

Hotels implored guests to use water only for drinking.

The city's newspaper, The Gazette, continued to cover the story with the help of emergency generators. But the floodwaters were just outside the front door, and the place had no running water. Portable bathrooms were set up outside for the staff.