Flood + Other Calamities Day 2

Today I woke up to more rumors - the water had been turned off, the town evacuated - part of it was, anyway - and a few harsh truths. My mom had to see the doctor this morning because of severe pain and very high blood pressure. I'm in the waiting room running down info on the deterorating situation in town on one hand while at the same time gathering the same kind of sense of what was happening to my mom. There are few perfect storms in life, and this was one. Thank God my mom is out of the woods; unfortunately the woods are part of a much larger general foresty region that the docor says is dense and widespread and we'll know we're out of it when we're out of it. Same with the flood. The river level is receding some, but it rained today and will tonight and tomorrow; a tornado just destroyed a boy scout camp in Sioux City, killing four apparently, and now that same system is headed this way. It seems Biblical, the weather these past few weeks.

I helped for a few hours in the afternoon, sandbagging at the DOT where they turned a garage into the fastest sandbag production line in history. Hundreds of people, a thousand maybe, turned out, including members of the UNI football and basketball teams. I sholved and bagged and threw bags and as many as I did just in that short time, they're still doing it now and will continue to until we're out of those aforementioned dark and uncertain woods. There's a curfew in downtown Waterloo where I am so it's quiet and strange outside. Except for the wind. It's coming up. Naturally.

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