Dam! That's a lot of water

I hijacked today's blog post title from The Library, a Drake University-area bar. They have a sign above their door that always features some witty phrase. When I drove past today and read it, I actually laughed out loud. You've gotta love a sense of humor amid what is some crazy ridiculous flooding in these parts.

My 2008 flood experience has been vastly different from my 1993 flood experience. In 1993 I had just graduated from college and started a full-time job. The flood hit, Des Moines was without water for more than a week and downtown was mostly evacuated--for fear there would be a fire and no water to put it out. Since I was new, I wasn't "essential" (those were the days...) so I ended up getting two weeks off. Paid. I thought, "This full-time job thing might just be OK!"

At the time I was living with my friend Brian's girlfriend Lisa. For some reason she still had to work; something about "still needing to put out the DM Register" or something... :-) Brian was still looking for a job, and his apartment was without water, so he effectively moved in with us. He and I became flood-buddies. We can still quote some of the ridiculous commentary of the local TV reporters (who, in all fairness to them, had been talking about water for hundreds of hours on end.) My favorite was the guy up in the helicopter, looking down at something (perhaps a flooded home or a car) and saying, "Look at that [whatever]! That [whatever] is TOAST!" It was the boyish zeal with which he said it that really makes it stick in my mind. That's when you knew someone had been covering the flood just a little too long.

Anyway... this time downtown Des Moines was spared, but many other areas are not so fortunate. Last I knew, 83 of our 99 counties were disaster areas. We're talking serious flooding.

Amid all this, on Saturday morning I was getting ready to go out when I heard on the news that a) a levee had just given way north of downtown and b) a team of runners from Seattle, in town for the NCAA Track and Field Championships were down at the river sandbagging. From Seattle. Running in the championships later that day. No ties to Des Moines. Yet they were helping out. And what was I doing? Primping for a Saturday morning breakfast with friends. Yeesh...

In all fairness to me, my herniated disc is not well-suited for sandbagging. I wouldn't have lasted 15 minutes. But man did I feel like quite the loser...

In related news, breakfast was delicious. And they had the news on so we could continue to monitor the work of the good people of Seattle down there on our levees. Nice work, folks! I should have thought to go cheer you on later that day at Drake Stadium. I guess I was there in spirit. Just like I was with the sandbagging.

I'm wondering just how long all this guilt will hang over my head. Damn! That's a lot of guilt.

In signing off, I extend my sympathies to those directly affected by the flooding, and my gratitude and admiration to all those who took action to do something about it--those whose homes were flooding, those whose homes were not, and those whose homes are 2,000 miles away. My hat's off to you all.