First day I was there, I was thwarted by roadblocks and the National Guard from entering the place that was flooded. The flood waters were already receding. On the way back to the house where my other friends live who are also named Jen and Sean (Well actually Gen and Sean but it does sound exactly the same), I saw this way cool purple and pink car and grabbed a picture of it.

Uh oh-- more other peoples' kids pictures. here's Thalia and DC. Thalia is the one who looks like a ghost.

Why is it that kids like getting their picture taken so much?

OKOK. Enough kid pictures.

Every time I come to Cedar Rapids, I see this chiropractor sign. I don't know if I would go willingly to a chiropractor named "SLAYMAKER". It sounds a little risky.

Next day, I was able to get a lot closer to the flood area. They had moved the barricades back a little ways and I was able to find spots that weren't being guarded very closely. I made my way to the river's edge, where debris was lapping at the bottom of the 1st Ave bridge. The water here is still much higher than usual. 4 days previous to this it had been lapping at the underside of the higher bridge.

Here's a nice shady spot where you can soak your feet in the river.

BEHOLD! The mighty Toilet Brush still remains, steadfast against the mighty if receding waters. Behind it stands City Hall, one of two(?) city halls in the world which are built on an island. A few days ago this particular island was completely submerged.

Not completely undamaged, the Brush had tiles peeled off of its base, but it looks like most of them didn't get very far, and/or were collected up by people.

Another view of the debris piling up against the bridge. Stuff like this can imaginably undermine the integrity of a bridge. DANGER IS NOT OVER!

Ignoring a "ROAD CLOSED" sign and the concept of danger not being over, I crossed that very bridge. On the other side was a riverside park, which was probably a lot closer to the riverside than usual. Here a little carpeting had arrived to warm the newly exposed roots of this tree:

In this park, Chaos abounds.

When the road led into a pond it was time to turn around and find another way.

This side had got hit quite a bit worse.

If didn't occur to me til later that I could have taken some of these pens that were strewn all down the block. Come to think of it, if I had pocketed some pens I might have been shot by an overzealous National Guard dude for looting! I wasn't thinking of that, though. I just didn't feel like disturbing the scene in any way.

This box alone would have been several years supply, for me.

Around this time a cop car showed up and the cops told me to get out. I asked what was the quickest way out and they pointed me to just go past that Hum Vee in the exact opposite direction from which I had come! I asked how could I get over to the other side of the river and they said I could cross over the 1st Ave bridge. So I set off for it. They followed me. I stopped to take one more picture of a Casey's convenience store with sandbags piled around it and a cop shouted to KEEP MOVING OUT OF THE PERIMETER!!! so that shot was not taken...

But-- it turned out I could not cross over the 1st Ave bridge after all.

more pictures at bniblet.com