safe and dry and on the same side of the river

Ok every blog so far about the 500 year flood has been sarcastic. I keep getting calls from concerned friends about it so here is a serious update. We live high up from the flood waters. I have learned from my running that our street is appropriately named Summit St because you have to run up hill in any direction to get to it. I got across the river just fine tonight on the way home from work, even stopped to take a few pictures on my camera phone. We have the kids with us this weekend and they are safe. Their mom's house is higher up than ours and is safe. We get a little water in our basement when it rains but we will have no trouble from this flood. My bean bag frog which I have had since I was 5 hates water because he thinks it will make his beans blow up and he will explode, he is safe on the second floor of our house. We cancelled our main service for church tomorrow and are going "first century Acts" and having home churches staged on both sides of the river and in Coralville so people can be together to pray and worship. Many people are worn out from sandbagging for hours just to see the water rise and their hard work be for naught. The damage will be severe and there will be clean up for months. Many local farmers will have lost all their crops and their livelihood. Many people have lost their homes and all their possessions. We are fine and have power, water, stocked pantry, 10 gallons of emergency bottled water, a full fridge of food and each other. So in all my sarcasm about chinook helicopters and cancelled softball games and random non emergencies coming to the ER during such a disaster, we are incredibly blessed and lucky and have not forgotten to be thankful. Thanks for all your prayers and concerned. The Iversons are safe and dry and all on the same side of the river.

Here are some pictures from my phone. For all those who know town, this was taken from the walking bridge over Riverside as I was about cross the Burlington St bridge. The water is about 20 ft over the bank. The Old Capital is the background. This is the water rushing and hitting the bottom of the Burlington St bridge north side which is the side that is soon to close I am sure.