Some of the wingnut persuasion have called us "The People's Republic of Iowa City". To other haters it's "San Fransisco on the Iowa River". Fortunately, wingnuts and haters aren't too powerful around here. This is the sort of place where the mayor shows up riding a bicycle at the farmer's market to speak about the need to address climate change. We're rooted in rural values, like working hard and caring for the land. We're highly educated and pragmatic thinkers, the kind the wingnuts and haters call "elitists". We've got a lot of energetic and organized young people. This is the sort of place that had a lot to do with electing Barack Obama.
The volunteer efforts this past few days has been tremendous. I participated in the efforts on Madison Ave to shore up the university. By yesterday, the university had met its goals and the site had been converted into a central location to fill and ship sandbags for to the surrounding community. It was a really amazing scene. There were Mennonites shoveling into bags held by hippies. There were sorority girls tying off bags. There were hipsters and jocks, families from Iowa City, professors, international students, stoners, punk rockers, and farm boys shuttling bags into place across long lines.
A number of buildings on campus will flood but the university did a fantastic job directing all of the efforts to secure things like the data centers and get art work and books away from the water. Not everything will be saved but a lot was. For example, dozens of volunteers formed chains to shuttle books to the higher floors of the library. Essential city functions in Iowa City remain near 100% and from what I hear the volunteer efforts were as strong around town as they were on campus.
There are parts of campus and residential areas that will be flooded for weeks, but a lot of downtown and many residential neighborhoods are on high ground. We're tremendously fortunate compared to Cedar Rapids which had it's whole downtown flooded and had water up to the rooftops in historical residential districts, places that Czech immigrants settled and no one ever thought would flood. The flooding in Cedar Rapids was also much more sudden because it was a levee breach. We've had a chance to see the crest coming for days. In turn, Cedar Rapids is fortunate compared to what happened in New Orleans where an entire coastline was hit by a hurricane and it was very difficult to stage recovery and rescue. What New Orleans needed only the federal government could provide, like a massive airlift effort. FEMA is needed in support for a disaster on the magnitude we're having. They are needed to play a primary role in massive relief response to a major natural disaster or attack.
I'm very proud of how we've handled ourselves. I'm proud of our values. I'm proud of who we are as Iowans (even "non-natives" like me), Midwesterners, and Americans.
