A week later

Is it possible that it has only been 9 days since the water crested? On Monday, Ken got into the antique shop and this is what greeted him. Under the rubble is about 4 inches of mud. The basements were still full of water which made the shop incredibly humid. In order to avoid the basement walls caving in, they let the water naturally seep out. So the basement finally dried out on Saturday. Most of the dealers have shown up and removed what could be salvaged and put in the dumpsters everything else. Ken saved a few of our display cases and the rest just fell apart.
We now know that water got into the bank vault and on Monday, Ken will go and see if any of our precious, valuables can be saved. It is hard and this week has been difficult, but we are coming to peace with it. It is strange how I can rationally tell myself, I have not lost that much compared with some who lost their homes, pets, jobs and everything they had. At the same time, any loss, no matter how small can be hard to deal with and there is a lot of it in Cedar Rapids. Of course that starts the vicious cycle of feeling guilty for worrying about small losses when others lost so much. No wonder disaster victims have such a difficult time.
Ken is staying until July 4 and then will fly back and we will take some time to figure out our next steps. The man who owns the building says he will rebuilt and we should be back in the building in 2 months. We will see.
For now, I am so thankful for all of your calls and emails. You made all of this so much easier.