Stories

Most of Iowa City has been spared the Biblical-level floods seen in Cedar Rapids, as the Iowa River passed its crest Sunday. A dry forecast for the next three days may mean Iowa City has seen its highest levels.

At midday Monday, Iowa City was at an anticlimactic lull. The urgent preparations for the worst have [...]

Most of the sandbagging is done, and as of 11 a.m. Sunday the Benton and Burlington Street bridges in Iowa City were still open.

While scattered preparations continue, there’s nothing going on like Saturday’s massive effort at the University of Iowa’s Lindquist Center, where thousand of volunteers worked to protect the building housing the University’s main [...]

Coralville, now officially separated from their Iowa City counterpart by water, took advantage of the clear blue skies to prepare for the next round of Mother Nature’s wrath. What She will leave in her wake is anyone’s guess, but the Coralville community is taking no chances.

A small fishing boat navigates flood waters that help separate [...]

The University of Iowa fine arts campus, seen from atop the north parking ramp.

On a perfect summer Saturday afternoon in Iowa City, the streets are mostly free from traffic. Pedestrians and bikes outnumber cars. Little seems to be going on — except sandbagging.

There’s a lot of that.

Waters are entering the north doorway of the Iowa Memorial Union on the University of Iowa campus as of 5:00 Friday afternoon, and massive preparations for higher waters are evident all over lower campus. Here’s Friday the 13th’s Iowa City flood pictures:

County supervisors passed a mandatory evacuation notice at an emergency meeting Thursday night, and also considered contingencies for road closings and relocation of county offices as flood waters approach the county’s Administration Building.

“It’s a desperate situation, no doubt about it,” Congressman Dave Loebsack told the meeting. Loebsack said Federal Emergency Management Agency director Dave Paulison [...]

The Johnson County Administration Building may be at risk from rising floodwaters if Tuesday’s Army Corps of Engineers flood estimates hold, the county’s facilities manager told the Board of Supervisors Wednesday. The Administration Building was sandbagged, except for the main entrance, by midday Wednesday.

Johnson County officials, who say they need a new courthouse and jail, are casting a wary eye to the west, where Polk County voters soundly rejected a courthouse project Tuesday.

“It would be good for all of us to be talking to our peers there” to see what worked and what didn’t in the campaign, said [...]

What’s in store at this year’s music and arts festival Mission Creek Midwest (MCM) (April 1-7)? Rest assured, the 3rd annual Iowa City fest will feature plenty of music. But what else? For starters, they’ve teamed up with the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival and indie music mp3 website Daytrotter.

In interviews with Iowa Independent this week, several delegates discussed the tough choices they may have to make at Saturday’s county convention.