Flood Update
Here‘s a quick update on a couple of Iowa fitness facilities that we reported on Wednesday concerning the floods in that state:
An employee at the River Plaza Athletic Club in Waterloo, IA, said today that they‘re still trying to pump water out of the club. The hope is that the club will re-open on Monday, or at least parts of the club, the employee said.
There was also a voluntary evacuation for much of downtown Des Moines, IA, and other areas bordering the Des Moines River this afternoon, the Associated Press reports. Several clubs and a YMCA are located there.
Perhaps the hardest hit town today is Cedar Rapids, IA. The AP reports that rising water from the Cedar River forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital, and residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 400 city blocks are under water.
The Rockwell Collins Recreation Center in Cedar Rapids is still open, but showers are closed because of the city‘s request for limited water use, and there is no towel service, according to Ian Sizer, the front desk supervisor at Rockwell Collins. The gymnasium and running track were closed off in the club and will be used as an American Red Cross shelter for people displaced by the flood, he says. Classes are closed as well.
Dave Koch, a spokesman for the Cedar Rapids fire department, told the AP that the river will crest today at about 31.8 feet. It was at 30.9 feet early in the morning. In a 1993 flood, considered the worst flood in recent history, the river was at 19.27 feet, the AP reports.
In other words, compared to the flood of ‘93, this year‘s flood “blows it away,” Sizer says. -Stuart
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