Losing Iowa

I realize that Tim Russert's death has hit the country like the sad senseless tragedy of Princess Diana's death or Clarabell. But maybe we can do something about the fact that we are losing more American cities to flooding.

Rain is expected through the weekend in Iowa, where floodwaters have deluged much of the state. The city of Cedar Rapids is hardest hit. More than 400 city blocks are under water and more than 3,000 homes have been evacuated.

One hundred miles to the southwest, officials have issued a voluntary evacuation order for much of downtown Des Moines. The mayor of the state's capital and largest city calls the evacuations an attempt "to err on the side of citizens and residents."

Iowa's governor has declared 83 of the state's 99 counties to be state disaster areas. Nine rivers are at or above historic flood levels. Relief may come next week, when the weather in Iowa is predicted to be sunny and dry.

Flooding is also widespread in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. --AP

Maybe the National Guard and the Reserves can be called in... oh.. wait...

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N.W. Washington State Storm Coverage

It's been a mess out here.

I couldn't get to work Monday due to flooding.

The more general Seattle area is doing alright. It's the outlying areas which are in deep trouble.

This is KING5 helicopter footage of the massive floods near my mother-in-law's home 25 miles from Chehalis. All of Centralia/Chehalis is pretty much under water. Interstate 5 is detoured at Exit 88. It's an over 400 mile detour down to Portland for the big trucks.

Here are more storm videos.

I live roughly 300+ feet above the valley floor. On purpose. Having lived through one mass flood down near Centralia/Chehalis in the early 90s, when we moved to the Seattle suburb where we live now, I made certain we were well above the flood plain.

This has proven wise several times over. We have a big back yard, backed up against a steep ravine which goes down to a year-round creek which in times of flooding, transforms into something you wouldn't want to get caught in. The hill is heavily wooded and while mud slides are in general a major problem during these storms, I've never been seriously worried about losing the back yard to a slide.

Trains were stopped due to slides. Hundred mile winds at the seashore.

This storm wasn't nearly as bad as last year's December Hanukkah storm which left about a million people without power, some of them for up to ten days. But that was snow and wind and rebuilding half of the power grid. (We were without power for two days.) This is the kind of flooding we get maybe every ten years, boats cruising down streets, big Sears stores drowned in water up to your eyeballs kind of fun.

It is still raining. Hasn't stopped except briefly.

I hear Portland is in bad shape, but we're all so busy taking care of ourselves, I frankly haven't had time to check. Anyone who knows, please chime in. Photos would be great as well.

Again, things are back to normal in greater Seattle, mostly. It's once you get outside of King County that everything is still rough. If you're local, please let us know how you're doing.

And hey... let's make this a weather thread in general. East Coast as I understand, and the middle of the country, all had some pretty rough weather.

How are you doing weather-wise right now? Feel free to link to photos.

Is everyone safe?

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Where is the National Guard

Gov. Bill Richardson has a piece up at the Huff-Po asking where is the Guard? It's a rhetorical question of course. He knows there are about 50,000 Guard and Reserve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which is not where they are supposed to be. California is having to ask Arizona and Richardson's home state New Mexico for help. These states also have thousands of Guard and Reserve overseas. It's not just that they are deployed, most these guys are on their 3rd or 4th deployment.

The Guard was a good system, for Governors it provided the extra help they needed in times of emergencies. For the Guard members they got training and a little bit of extra money. How many people are going to sign up for the Guard anymore?

Like everything the Republicans get their hands on, it turns to shit.

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