You are correct............the people of Iowa are really pitching in to help
each other. I met quite a few nice people when we were living in Cedar
Rapids. I remember when I had to go into the hospital to get a C5 fusion in
my spine............one of my friends drove 66 miles from DeWitt, to be
there when I went into surgery. He still comes out to visit us from time to
time.

Pete

wrote in message
...
On Jul 14, 4:43 pm, "Pete KE9OA" wrote:
It's pretty bad out there..........I was talking to one of my Cedar Rapids
friends over the weekend. FEMA has set up trailors out just east of
Marion.
This town is just northeast of Cedar Rapids, on Route 151.
The homeless are permitted to live in these trailors rent free........all
they have to pay are the utilities. This friend of mine (Jeff Woods) is
helping out on the cleanup detail. Some of the houses are so bad from the
flooding that if you step into them, the floor will crumble and you will
end
up in the basement. Those are the houses that are going to be torn down.
The people with flood damage are being given 28000 dollars to repair their
houses; the people whose houses are damaged beyond repair are being given
an
additional 30000 or so dollars.
You are right......you don't hear anything about it on the news. It looks
like Cedar Rapids doesn't have enough money to "grease the palms" of the
news media.
It is unfortunate...................a celebrity's son or daughter gets
killed, and it is all over the news. When I lived on the west side of
Chicago in the 60s, there would be murders every week, but none of this
would ever hit the news media. Once again, unless you are some sort of
celebrity, you are considered
"insinificant" by the media.

Pete

Tragically true, that. Although I think if there was a massive loss
of life on the scale of Katrina, it *would* have gotten massive news
coverage. I think the mentality is still "if it bleeds, it leads".

But as a citizen, I'm more worried about the ability of my government
to help those who need it, in time. And again, I wonder if the
federal response was or is adequate to the scale of the emergency.

And please note, the only sense in which this disaster is much less
severe than Katrina is in loss of life. From a sheer human misery
standpoint, it's hard to imagine anything this bad. It's probably a
huge tribute to the grit and sense of everyday Iowans that this did
not turn into a much deadlier event than it has been. After all, Iowa
has the #1 education system in the country.

I doubt the credit for that goes to the federal response, but maybe
I'm wrong.





"harvey" wrote in message

...

On Jul 14, 2:37 pm, dxAce wrote:
A few pointed questions about the Iowa floods:

Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for
help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?
Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal
government hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and
trailers) are?
Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels
in Chicago ?
When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees
that failed in Des Moines ?
Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?
Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen
television sets?
When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a
"vanilla" Iowa , because that's the way God wants it?
Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of
cannibalism?
Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural
people?
How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever
again?
(via a friend)

There are no Bodies floating around in the water ?

No Corpses sitting out in Wheelchairs in The rain ?

No Riots in large sports arenas ?

- Only part of Des Moines got flooded ?

A lot of this is due to the fact that land usage has changed,
a lot of wet lands have been plowed under for crops,
and drainage pipes put under the fields to dry them out faster,

- so when It rains the water just rushes into the nearest river.

Round these parts, they had a Huge Winter storm in the 1950's
wiping out huge areas near the coast.

- Upshot is, all the houses are built essentially on stilts, with
break away lattice covering the " below living" areas.

Always nice to build a house next to a stream or river;
- until it floods.

Things will change.. Buildings on stilts , etc.

& **** Spike Lee, he gets 12 Million per film & then cries "
Prejudice"

A Real Prick

( but a real Good Film Maker)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Lee