Aerial Flood Photos

The Iowa City Press Citizen just posted some amazing aerial photos of the flood in Iowa City and Coralville. Check these out! We'll follow the river from the dam north of town to the last bridge in the south end of the city. First, some wonderful news: the resevior crested early this AM, and the river will follow in a day or two. That means it can't get much worse.

Here's the Marriot Hotel in Coralville. The waters are getting really close to the facility, but they haven't flooded yet. In fact, they still had customers staying there last night! Everyone else thinks they're totally crazy and started their sandbagging efforts too late, but we'll see.

This is the main commercial area of Coralville. Our favorite Indian restaurant is in the top middle of the photo and definitely under water.

Here's the intersection of Hwy 6 and 1st Ave, one of the busiest intersections in the Iowa City Area. Walgreens is just to the left of the area pictured.

This is the Iowa River as it passes through the university campus. As you can see, mommy and daddy's hospital is very safe, off to the top right of the photo. Our house is on the same level, but on the left (east) side of the river, also very safe. But the park road bridge is totally underwater and may collpase. And Hancher, where I got to see the Joffery Ballet last year, is flooded and will be out of service for some time.
The Park Road bridge. Obviously, we need to get used to a different commute to work!

The Iowa Ave Bridge near the student union. The union is now flooded. The bridge is fine, but the street on the near side of the river is flooded, so we can't get to the bridge.

The Burlington Street bridge- a real workhorse and the only remaining city bridge left. The engineers are doing an amazing job of keeping this open, which is important for us becuase it's the quickest route to the hospital and the closest bridge to my day care. The law school is the round building to the right, and the main library is the brick building behind the white tank on the far side of the river. The library's basement is flooded, but they got the books out. This is basically the view from the top of the hospital.

Finally, this is the south part of town and the last two bridges. Benton street bridge (top) is in even better shape than the Burlington bridge, but the streets are flooded on either side of it, limiting its usefulness. The Hwy 6 bridge at the bottom of the photo closed Friday AM and is totally swamped, and may not re-open for a while. Mommy and daddy's favorite Thai restaurant is to the far right of the photo. We don't know how badly flooded it is, but it will certainly re-open before the Indian place!