Flood Recovery

CEDAR RAPIDS — Get used to the idea of a West Village. The City Council’s Development Committee this week all-but formally created the place, West Village, directly across the Cedar River from downtown in a move that turns talk among council members in recent months into a new piece of Cedar Rapids geography. The drive [...]

Two U.S. senators who symbolize disagreements between upstream and downstream states over management of the Missouri River say last year’s historic flooding was a unifying moment. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., toured dams and levees along the river on Tuesday and Wednesday. Their home states have long battled over whether the [...]

  State officials are ignoring important public policy recommendations to cope with climate change and increased risks of flooding and water pollution, Iowa Policy Project researchers said Monday. “Iowans are going to see increased problems with water quality and quantity, in the form of flood damage, unless we make changes,” said Brian McDonough, lead author [...]

A beacon of hope during the Floods of 2008 is taking shape to prepare for its reinstallation in the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. The museum’s signature chandelier was carefully dismantled in November 2010 — the last item removed before the building was relocated to higher ground the following summer. More than 1,000 [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — After four long years, the first floor of the Linn County Courthouse, which was flooded in 2008, will be open for court proceedings Monday. The eight new courtrooms, conference rooms and judges’ chambers were getting their final cleanups Friday before the first phase of the $6.3 million renovation project opens to the [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — Six weeks ago City Hall put out an absolute last call for property owners to get into the city’s flood buyout program, and people heard: The owners of 111 residential and commercial properties scurried to beat the deadline. The City Council this week approved adding the final group of flood-hit properties to [...]

  University of Iowa officials said they are disappointed by the federal government’s denial of money to replace the UI Museum of Art at a new location, and they are considering their next steps. State officials Wednesday announced the decision by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to deny the UI’s second appeal regarding museum funding [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — Construction crews were busy Thursday taking the first steps to convert an old metal pole building once home to Quality Chef Foods into the NewBo City Market. The launch of the construction of the year-round farmers marketon Third Street SE in the heart of the New Bohemia arts and entertainment districtwas [...]

Linn County departments are into the last months at their temporary home at Westdale Mall. Crews working on the Jean Oxley Linn County Public Service Center, perhaps the centerpiece of the county’s recovery from the June 2008 flood, are working to meet a May 11 deadline on the project. That will allow departments now at [...]

  IOWA CITY — University of Iowa officials on Tuesday received word of the official obligation of more than $6.7 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the demolition of three flood-damaged campus buildings. The new obligation is money UI officials had expected from FEMA, but the obligation is the final step in the [...]