'We Are the Lucky Ones'

BOB SAAR--BURLINGTON
"Unfortunately the waters are still rising," says Bob Saar, a writer and musician in Burlington, which is in the southeast corner of Iowa on the Mississippi River. "It's just starting here. I spent all day Saturday sandbagging with a lot of other people. And it isn't even close to what Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls are going through. We'll get all their flood crest sometime tomorrow. The levees north of us started breaching last night. I have some blisters from sandbagging. But I do not have the wear that many others have after several days of struggling to keep the river out of their businesses and homes."

PATTI IRELAND--HOME EVACUEE (Ireland, 56, lives on a peninsula in Lake MacBride State Park, between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.)

"On Thursday, when the reports came through that the levels had been underestimated, I left work at 11:30 AM to go try to move some furniture from the first floor to the second floor of my house. My friend Sara came to help me, and while we were moving furniture, the sheriff showed up to discuss a "voluntary evacuation". He said they expected the road to be flooded sometime in the next 3 days, and that once it did, we wouldn't have access to any emergency services for a while.

"I hadn't thought about leaving yet, just wanted to make sure some of my good furniture was protected in the event that the water did come high enough to reach the house. At that point, the water had risen over a foot on my dock in the space of an hour, and I decided it might be wise to leave that night, thinking we'd only be out for a few days. Sara and I continued to move furniture, and I was packing a bag with a few clothes when a friend who works for the Corps of Engineers stopped by to advise the road would probably be flooded by morning, and that I should think about leaving soon. At that time, we didn't think it would be for long, and determined the water was unlikely to reach the second or third floor, so thought it would be OK to leave the cats with a lot of food and water, plenty of clean litter, and we took off.

"By that night, the reality of the underestimation for the situation in Cedar Rapids became clear, and the predictions for the reservoir and Iowa City were getting more dire. At 7 AM on Friday I got a call from a neighbor who had not yet left, saying the road was going under, so I went back, and wrestled 5 cats into cages to haul them out as well. I have lived in that house on and off for over 40 years- my son was born there 35 years ago, and I really didn't get hit with the gravity of the situation until I had the cats loaded, grabbed a few extra pairs of jeans, and hit the main breaker to turn the power off. My friend Sara has a house on high ground about 3 miles from my house as the crow flies, but about 15 by road, because so many of the small roads are flooded.

"She has graciously taken me in, as well as my three cats, and I'm safe, well-fed, and dry. I've been going through the gamut of feelings one reads about in these situations, but trying to maintain my sense of humor. I had to turn off the TV as the 'gloom and doom' gets really wearing. I jokingly tell friends who call or email that it is a good thing I am an old hippie - it was practice for being homeless and living out of my car at the age of 56, relying on the kindness of friends.