The rush of the river pushed loads of water up into the streets of downtown Waterloo, IA last Tuesday into Wednesday. At 9:30 Wednesday morning, my roommate and myself ventured out from our West 3rd Street home to see just how much water had escaped the river. As you can see in the "old train station" photo, the water in the are was very deep, however, depths did vary by location. Immediately under the US 218 overpass the water was as shallow as 2 inches. As you got closer to the Cedar River, it looked (we did not walk to the river) to be at least 3 to 4 feet deep. The "6th and Washington" picture also gives an idea of how much water was forced into the streets. We tried our best to stay out of the water, but had to cross north-bound Washington to get a good shot, standing in 1 foot of water while snapping photos. While traversing the streets, we saw a few other people out and about. A couple shared our mission: photo documentation. Other people were riding their bikes on a downtown flood tour, and we even spotted two girls playing in the flood water near a building on Park Avenue, a block East of Washington Street. It was amazing and shocking to see so much water in all the wrong places, and I won't mind if I never see it again. Unfortunately, at only 19 years old, I suspect I probably will.
Old Downtown Waterloo Train Station. Photo by Dan Richards.
Gallery
Downtown Waterloo, Wednesday
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