Date:         Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:38:48 -0500
Reply-To:     Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Subject:      Lost Vanagons in the Iowa Flooding?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Troops:  Let's hope no one has to go through the flooding that North
East Iowa has endured this past week or so.  The only Vanagoner from
the list in the Cedar Rapids area I think is Donald Baxter,. and we
haven't heard from him in a while.  Hope he's okay.  Any time the
authorities evacuate people in the 500 year flood plain, then that's
serious flooding.  The current crest is now scheduled for next
Tuesday if yesterday's rains don't jack it up again. I'm not sure
Interstate 80 has ever been closed due to flooding, but that's the
case today.  I know Jim Fritz was trying to sell his Vanagon in
Decorah and he lived more or less on the Upper Iowa, so we hope he's
not badly affected either.  The Upper Iowa is receding now, but still
high.  Al Brase's stash of Vanagons should be okay in Cedar Falls,
but he does/did have a rented shop in downtown Waterloo that had a
couple of VW's a Corvette and a 911/912 in it and they may have been
nailed by the flood waters.  Al's  residence sits pretty high in the
city, so it was okay.

Our situation is okay too, but the school that my wife worked at last
school year had water lapping up on the front door and  both
playgrounds were under water.  The new housing development to the
east of the school is a total loss. Our sandbagging efforts did save
the Cedar Falls Sewage Plant so our drinking water is safe for the
time being, but Cedar Rapids will run out of safe water to drink in a
day or two.  I spent the better part of a 12 hour overtime shift at
work yesterday doing nothing but sending bottled water, Bounty
towels, first aid kits, plastic cutlery, and Clorox wipes and cleaner
to the areas hardest hit.  12 semi truck loads in all.  Even the
Winnebago River has had its way with Mason City.  Des Moines has
flooding, but not to the extent we have it in the Eastern section of
the state.  Quaker Oats is totally shut down til further notice, you
oatmeal fans better prepare.  Cedar Rapids is the 2nd largest city in
Iowa and literally 100's of city blocks are under water and Iowa City
and the University are getting it as well.

The Cedar And Iowa Rivers are showing what they're capable of and the
estimates of the damage are in the billions of dollars.  Fortunately,
I don't think anyone has died as a result yet, but the Cedar and Iowa
rivers are now predicted to get below flood stage around June
24th.  Then the Mississippi will have to deal with all this
fluid.  The farmers had a very rough, wet, and cold spring to try and
plant their corn and beans, so we could see $10/bu. corn by
fall.  all three major TV stations have all but dropped their
national feeds to cover and communicate information to the
public.  We haven't seen a national newscast in a week or
better.  The local TV anchors have to be absolutely exhausted
covering all this.

DM&FS