© 2024 WYPR
WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

High Waters Hamper Flood Recovery Efforts

By Martin Kaste
Published June 17, 2008 at 4:00 PM EDT
Locals in Columbus Junction, Iowa, have named their flooded downtown along the Iowa River, "Lake C.J." The grocery store, day care center and a doctor's office are all underwater.
Martin Kaste, NPR /
Locals in Columbus Junction, Iowa, have named their flooded downtown along the Iowa River, "Lake C.J." The grocery store, day care center and a doctor's office are all underwater.

Parts of Iowa are still underwater after days of heavy flooding. That means roads are closed and bridges are washed out, making simple transportation more difficult.

In some parts of the state, it seems almost every bridge is blocked by a National Guard Humvee. County roads are clogged with dump trucks full of sand destined for the levees.

The trucks are helping to shore up levees. The National Guard and volunteers have been working for days to build up a few feet of extra height, but the water is still seeping through.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
See stories by Martin Kaste