Cedar Rapids Piano Lounge Floods...Again

By Mark Geary, Reporter

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By Mark Geary

Story Created: Nov 1, 2009 at 8:43 PM CST

Story Updated: Nov 1, 2009 at 11:54 PM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS – Several inches of water filled Cedar Rapids Piano Lounge after a water pipe broke on Sunday afternoon.

During the historic 2008 flood, crews had to pump out 760,000 gallons of flood water.

As water gushed into the Cedar Rapids Piano Lounge this weekend, bartenders prepared for battle…again.

"Your heart just drops and you think, 'Oh crap. Here we go again,'" bar owner Brett Klein said, "It just seems like a bad nightmare that keeps re-occurring and re-occurring.”

Like a well-trained army, the crew knew what to do.

"You just gotta stick to it and get things done," bartender Brett Klein said.

Buckets and brooms made a few waves. But, the water's advantage started to dry up when they brought in the heavy machinery. Nine ShopVacs swallowed gallon after gallon of water.

"They're keeping up and staying ahead of it now. Just a matter of time before we get the water shut off," bar tender and manager Ben King said.

A city maintenance eventually shut off the pipe and the water retreated. No one expected to spend their Sunday at the Piano Lounge, but no one complained, either.

"We're just a bunch of friends. We like to have fun every time we're together. So, with something like this, you just have fun and deal with it,” Klein said.

All that teamwork paid off. Within a matter of hours, all the water was gone. Now, the next step is just trying to dry the place out.

On Monday, crews will have to dig up the street in front of the Piano Lounge to repair the broken pipe. The bar expects to reopen by the middle of the week.

E-mail Mark Geary at Mark.Geary@kcrg.com or follow him on Twitter.

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