Cedar Rapids

I feel at a loss for words. The flooding in our home town of Cedar Rapids is devastating. The anitque mall that we ran is a total loss. Ken was able to get most of our smalls out, but everything else is under water. Some of the other dealers got nothing out. And the river is still rising as I write this Originally they said it would be about 21feet deep (9 feet over flood stage). As of midnight it was at 30 feet and rising. They are now saying that it will reach close to 32 feet (7 feet over the record high). They are not sure exactly how deep as the instrument for measuring the depth has washed away,..along with the railroad bridge and the ten cars of rock sitting on it in an attempt to save it. The best photos are on this link http://www.gazetteonline.com/. For me, sitting here in the Czech Republic, it is frustrating and at the same time I am sort of glad that I can not find any pictures of our shop. There is one of the museum on the hill a block from the shop. It is completely surrounded by water.
At this point all we can do is wait,...wait for the water to crest, wait for it to go down and wait to find out if we will be able to re-0pen the shop. For now, Ken is extending his stay in the states, I don't think he can even get to the airport! We will have to make some decisions. Unfortunately one of those decision may result in the end of this blog. With the terrible exchange rate and no income from the shop, we may not have any other option. I may need to go back and practice law.

Sorry for the depressing blog,..but not much is positive at the current time and sitting here alone and being helpless is difficult! I am thankful that few people were injured or killed and I know it is just stuff. But it is more the life-changing effect that is difficult to adjust to. At the same time, we come from resilient Iowa stock and we will survive,..it may just take a while!