Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Oakville in pictures
Last week we linked to a post about Oakville, Iowa, the little town that died to save others. Now there are pictures, and they are grim.
Iowa has more towns and villages than any other state in the country. The Hawkeye state was settled in the years between the railroad and the automobile, so there were stations evenly-spaced within wagon distance of the farms and little towns grew up around those stations. Many of those towns have no real reason to be any more, they just are. When one dies in a disaster, as Oakville has done, what will bring the people back?
3 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Jun 25, 10:38:00 PM:
First of all, the devastation caused by flooding is a very hard thing to accept. I'm sure TH knows, given the history of the past five or so years on the Delaware, how life-changing a flood can be.
That being said, my sister lives in Des Moines and previously lived in Cedar Rapids and, though a Jersey Girl by heritage, has grown to love it there. I know she is concerned about her city, but she tells me that most of the flooding is well contained and Iowans are absolutely never going to ask for or accept help until and unless they actually feel recovery is beyond their considerable resources. Compare and contrast Katrina.
By , at
Thu Jun 26, 11:18:00 AM:
Those images highlight the awful hazard of living near a river prone to flooding. Why people insist on building and living in a flood plain is beyond me. I've heard, many times, the assertion from some flooded out resident that they are going back and rebuild. Not rational.
By , at
Thu Jun 26, 02:37:00 PM:
"In my opinion, based on the weather this year, here is the probable cause of the large floods in June.
This past winter, the upper Midwest received very high snowfalls that accumulated without melting. The snow melted later than normal helping to saturate the ground. Numerous spring rains soaked even more. Many farmers have had to delay planting because of the wet ground.
A front stalled across the region causing large rainfalls with measurements of up to 8 inches a day during the first two weeks of June. The water-logged soil could not soak up any more precipitation causing the large runoffs and the great floods seen." - from the linked article above.
Eight inches of rainfall in a day during the first two weeks of June, on top of water logged ground that could adsorb no more water.
Yeah, all those dummies that lived on a flood plain. Just not rational. Let's never build anywhere where there is a potential disaster like that could happen.
Live in earthquake country like much of Southern California? Write it off. Live within twenty miles of the ocean where a hurricane could wreck your town? Write it off.
-David
