Iowa Under Water - Send Your Good Vibes Out to Kevin
 

Our UWOL team member and good friend Kevin Railsback is in the middle of dealing with a terrible flooding situation in Iowa. His city, Cedar Rapids, was evacuated and Des Moines, the capital city, is next.

The Ceder Rapids story was the lead story on our Colorado local news last night...cars floating down main street, a railroad bridge swept away by the water. It looks nasty.

I think they shut off all of the power in his city, so he probably doesn't have internet or web access right now, but I always think it helps, in some to send as much UWOL love out to our players as we can.

Hope you're staying safe and dry, Kevin.

Wow - sounds nasty - we're copping a bit of rain on this side of the world but nothing like that. Hope you and yours keep safe & dry Kevin

Hope you and your family are OK, Kevin.

My thoughts are with ya Bro...stay safe

Brian

God bless you Kevin, and your family also. Be safe. Let us know how we can help. Colorado is dry at the moment, and we have a guest bedroom and we can put others on the floor around the house. This is no joke. You can help me with the farm chores...

Cato

Our thoughts and prayers are with you Kevin

Kevin, hope everything is Ok with you and your familiy! And that the situation will improve in the days to come!

Take care!
Per Johan

Hi Kevin,

Flooding is a nasty thing. Hope you and your family are ok.
My thoughts are with you!


Trond

Kevin... I try to send a drysuit over... (sorry)

I hope you and your family is ok... I'll be thinking about you...

MArkus

He may not be able to finish his UWOL entry because of the situation, but our boy did manage to put up some quickie footage of the flood in his town and, according to an e-mail that he sent me, he and his wife are feeding all the abandoned animals -- if that isn't pure Kevin!

http://www.silverphoenixllc.com/500_Year_Flood.html

I flew in to Cedar Rapids on Tuesday evening and left on Wednesday evening. Just in time to miss the flood. I saw the water approaching the bridges when I arrived, and the bridges were all shut down except the one over the river that I needed (the highway) by the time I left.

It was pretty dramatic. But at that time, the news was all about how they had saved Cedar Falls with sandbags. I was lucky that our business meeting was when it was, and not a day later.

Good luck Kevin...and take care.

I also have other friends in that area, plus the Quad cities and Cedar Falls...
Not to mention a few friends in SW Wisconsin which is also being hit hard...
Tough times for all...

Kevin,

I wish you and your family well and a quick recovery from this mess.

Regards,

Oliver Pahlow

___________________
www.blindchildproductions.com

Wow, thanks for all the kind words and messages of support!

My family has been blown away when I tell them I've been getting emails from all over the world checking up on me. UWOL truly is a family and a great one at that.

It's been incredible the response we've had here. A shelter puts out a request for pillows and over 1000 pillows show up in just a couple of hours.

Target has been incredible. They've been shipping in semi loads of blankets, bottled water, you name it. They've been telling the city let us know what you need and we'll do our best to get it here.

PetSmart has shipped in a huge truck with pet supplies and are bringing in another one tomorrow.

I have to tell you, Angi and I broke down into tears when we were dropping off supplies to the makeshift animal shelter at Kirkwood College today.

We had brought over as much dog and cat food as we could afford. We also picked up a lot of toys for the animals to play with to help pass the time while they wait for their owners to find them.

When we walked into the room it was incredible to see the amount of supplies that people had brought in. As we were leaving more people were pulling up with bags upon bags of food, bowls, newspapers, you name it.

But what really got us was the line of people searching for their pets that had to be left behind as the flood waters rose.

The parking lot was filled with animals rescue vehicles from all over the Midwest. It was really something to see the outpouring of love for all these animals. We're going to try and stop by tomorrow to help clean cages, walk dogs etc. They're estimating almost 1000 animals will be there by the end of the week.

Even the number of birds at my feeders has increased. I had to go out an buy more bags of seed because they are snapping it up like you wouldn't believe.

It's also been really something to see people helping each other. One business had sand bagged their sports bar only to realize that there was no way they could save the building. So they loaded up all their sandbags and helped place them around a competitors sports bar because it had a better chance of surviving.

We were on our way out to help sandbag when we noticed our own basement was taking on water. So, a mad dash across town to get pumps etc which Lowe's had brought up from Texas in semi loads, and we managed to keep the water from doing more than soaking the carpet. So, while we're in between dropping off supplies to the animal shelters or running jugs of water to friends who are on water rationing, we''re trying to dry our own home out.

I even managed to squeeze out a few frames for my UWOL entry. :)
It's not going to be much at all but I said I'd enter something even if it was paint drying.
Course, it might be carpet drying, you never know. :)

The river crested here yesterday but the towns below us are just starting to flood badly. They say the river won't fall below flood stage now until Friday.

Since I made my little video on our way to get supplies, the number of city blocks under water had jumped from 400+ to over 1300 city blocks. That's just Cedar Rapids. small towns all around are still totally under water. Other know it's coming and are trying to evacuate while they still can.

My wife's old law office was all under water and a total loss. They are setting up offices in her current building to house as many attorney's as they can who need to set up an office while they are rebuilding. They may battle each other in the courts but when it comes to things like this, they band together because they know it could have just as easily been them.

So, travel is still limited. To get to Iowa City, normally like a 30 mile trip requires a 281 mile detour because there are so many roads under water.

So, that's kind of it at the moment. Sorry for the ramble but I've been running down to check the fans and dehumidifiers and forgot what I was going to say. :)

Hopefully the worst is over. It rained enough today to they say the river will stop falling for a bit. More rain coming in tomorrow.

Thank you again for all your kind words and encouragement. My wife and I have both been deeply touched by the caring and concern from my UWOL family.

Amazing stories you have to tell Kevin! Really wonderful to hear how kind and generous people are when disaster strikes.
So glad to hear that your home wasn’t totally inundated by the flood waters - and that hopefully, as you say, the worst is over for you now. You are in our thoughts and prayers.