The Flood Waters Are Rising

Since Iowa started flooding last week a few of you have expressed concern about our families back in the Midwest. So here is an update as to how things are going there. The Mississippi River is supposed to crest at Keokuk tomorrow. Keokuk is where we did everything; shopping, church, music lessons, eating out etc. It is about 7 miles down the road from my home town of Warsaw. This is a picture of the Keokuk bridge that connects Iowa and Illinois. They brought in gravel and other materials to raise the elevation to allow it to remain open as long as possible. Here is a picture of the Illinois side (it's at a lower elevation than the Iowa side) bridge before the elevation change. You can see how the water is across the whole entrance of the bridge.

This is the same side after the elevation change.

According to the paper the traffic is slow going, but people are making it across. There was major flooding in this same area back in 93 but they are predicting this flood will be worse. My parents still have a home in Warsaw, however most of the town is on a bluff. So their home will be fine as will most of the town. There is an area that we called the bottoms and those residents will not fair so well. The river is always very close there so at flood level it will be inside their home it's just a matter of how far up the water will go. There is some concern about the water filtration system because the crest level expected is so high. Currently I don't have any pictures of the flood waters in Nauvoo. But for those of you that have been there the water is up on Parley street; where the saints crossed the river into Iowa, but it is not into any of the historical sites. But my mother in law told me this morning that the water is into her beauticians yard. Larry's parents house is up on a bluff as well so they should be fine. It's just sad to see the destruction that the flood waters cause. This last picture is of the lock and dam at Keokuk. You can see that the water is just a few feet shy of covering the top. The bridge in the background is the old bridge that we crossed when I was a kid. That thing was terrifying! The top surface is a grate so you can see through it to the river. And it's a swing bridge so there is a large section that swings out when a barge comes through so you would periodically get stuck on the bridge. Everytime we got stuck I was convinced that the bridge was going to fall apart and that we were going to crash into a watery grave. Sometimes my brothers would get out of the car and walk around but I never did. I was too chicken. To this day I still don't think I could do it!