Flooding in the Midwest

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by Thetagirl218

Where is FEMA in all this?

FEMA has been in the area since the end of last week. There's not much they can do right now because the housings/buildings all need to be inspected before they can decide what to do with them and then homeowners need to meet with their insurance agents (at least that's what I gather from the news reports). With at least 3,500 houses impacted in Cedar Rapids alone, it's going to take some time.

I drove through the downtown area on the way to a minor league baseball game last night and it was just depressing seeing all the furniture and drywall and crap that is being loaded up on the curb for removal and all the houses that were marked uninhabitable. And the smell is horrendous. CR is already known as the city of five smells;this trumps them all.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

FEMA has been in the area since the end of last week. There's not much they can do right now because the housings/buildings all need to be inspected before they can decide what to do with them and then homeowners need to meet with their insurance agents (at least that's what I gather from the news reports). With at least 3,500 houses impacted in Cedar Rapids alone, it's going to take some time.

I drove through the downtown area on the way to a minor league baseball game last night and it was just depressing seeing all the furniture and drywall and crap that is being loaded up on the curb for removal and all the houses that were marked uninhabitable. And the smell is horrendous. CR is already known as the city of five smells;this trumps them all.

Some friends and I though we'd be do-gooders after the 1993 floods so that summer we went out for a few days to help with cleanup. The most intense thing I remember is the smell: seriously the worst thing I can remember smelling to the point where at one house I really wasn't a whole lot of use because I kept gagging so much I had to keep running outside to keep from throwing up.

I don't think we were really much use, but it was very educational for us. Our section of the Atlanta suburbs hadn't prepared us for much.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

CR is already known as the city of five smells;this trumps them all.

I may regret asking this, but what are the five smells?

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

I may regret asking this, but what are the five smells?

Cedar Rapids has five main manufacturing companies that all have very distinct smells:
Quaker Oats
Cargill
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
General Mills
Penford

Some days it's not too bad - like when Quaker is making Crunch Berries or Cinnamon Life - others it's just downright nasty and you have to breathe through your mouth.

The actual tourism tagline for the CR is "The City of Five Seasons" (the fifth season is the season to enjoy them all/enjoy life ). There's a gigantic metal sculpture downtown near the river called the Tree of Five Seasons.

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

I may regret asking this, but what are the five smells?

NOTHING can come close to Tacoma back in the day-Remember
I have a story about it from the WSJ.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by jon1856

NOTHING can come close to Tacoma back in the day-Remember
I have a story about it from the WSJ.

Tacoma still smells when the mill is operating.