Ah Iowa! Where Flooding Is Just part of the Landscape.

If you have been paying attention to the news lately,   there is flooding in Iowa…again!   Perhaps not as bad as the Cedar Rapids event in 2008, but still bad.  Since we have moved here, flooding seems to be an every other year occurrence.  And the BEST part about it is…our apartment here in sleepy Wellman has flooded AGAIN!

Now this might seem like par for the coarse, but we live on a HILL!   The English river is about 30 feet below us!   And NO it did not flood that high.   The reason is that this apartment was build back in 1950 when they, apparently, just threw things up with out any building codes or foresight.  I’m sure they must have thought that if you build on a hill, there is no need to worry about the drainage of the rainwater….since you are on a hill!   And water runs DOWN hills…so no need for worry, Right? 

So here is the problem:   The water runs down the hill…and into our apartment.   It is not a problem as long as the land is able to absorb the water.  However,  when the ground becomes saturated,  the water invites itself into our living room,  soaking our carpeting and basically ruining our week!.  

As you might glean from this post,   I’m a little frazzled about our current living arrangement.   We flood in wet years, we flood in DRY years ( the sewage backup from last thanksgiving)  and now the flooding has come again!   Well,  after a 24 hours, it has subsided for the moment…but we are still fighting the dampness, and it is snowing outside as we speak.   In addition,  the road to town is underwater and closed,  causing us to have to take a long detour around the area.   YEAH!   Hopefully the weather will be GOOD this summer to make up for the last several “CRAPPY” years of weather.  Not too hot,  dry, wet, or windy!  We shall see.

In the mean time,   Moose at the Caribou coffee!   I thought that the origami caribou needed a friend.   I’m not sure what happened, but the little caribou is gone.   Perhaps someone finally took him home.  The larger one remains and I guess the employees have been collecting the other models I have been leaving.   We shall see if the moose finds himself up on the front counter any time soon.   Hope everyone else is having a better week.   Judging from the tour of the area.  Some folks are totally underwater.   I bet they are wishing they had not jumped at that riverside property now!  Not that misery loves company.  I actually would not wish flooding on ANYONE!   I guess Iowa is the the very least, free from hurricanes, forest fires, volcano eruptions, shark attacks, Or any other natural disaster…other than floods.  Iowa….loves floods….and corn.