CEDAR RAPIDS - The flood displaced more than 15-hundred children from day cares and pre-schools in Cedar Rapids. But those childcare services are slowly coming back online in flood affected areas.

This is nap number three at the new and improved Olivet Head Start. Supervisor Mary Belcher just reopened this site on Monday.

She says, "We were able to move most of them to another site to accommodate them through the summer, but it was a rough transition for staff and for students."

She says 32 kids lost their preschool all summer.

"We lost everything. Everything had to be removed because it was contaminated."

The flood also forced a few of them plus Mary and three other workers from their homes. For the past three months, it's been a lot of shifting and uncertainty.

"Childcare is very expensive and so for those families, it's critical to have somewhere safe for their children to go, so they can work."

The students here come from low-income families where parents have to work and can't always take care of their kids even during this disaster. But kids here are luckier than others. Half of the centers like this are still in alternate locations or aren't even running. None of those located in flooded homes have come back though some are up at other sites.

Tammy Clark, an assistant Head Start teacher, says, "When they can't go back to something that they're used to, their friends are here at school and they learn and do different things here."

Even being back here, things are different. Every piece of equipment is brand new.

Belcher says, "There's so many more things that we need that we had before that we don't have now."

She adds it will still be a while before things are completely back to normal. But for now, they can finally start to rest easy.

If you're a parent still looking for childcare after the flood, call the Childcare Resource and Referral for a free list of providers. That number is 319-739-1556.