August 14, 2010
The 1,000 Year Flood
I just finished a splendid book called “The 1,000 Year Flood” by Stephen Lyons about the Cedar Valley’s Flood of 2008. (Find it on amazon.com here.) It describes in detail about the first year of flood recovery. It is hard to recommend a book that describes events in which I played a role, but I do anyhow. The book stands out to me for its handling of two topics:
1) The human impact of the Flood of 2008. Others many recount the impact to physical structures, focusing on the buildings that were flooded, the height of the levies that failed or the tonnage of muck-covered debris in the streets. The hazard to that approach is that statistics are so dry…even when the statistics are about water. Mr. Lyons sees people and damaged lives. Reconstruction is less about rebuilding a house than restoring order to the contents of flood victims’ souls. I have seen no book, article or television special that does a better job uncovering the impact to people that unfolds over time, outside the coverage of the media.
I am objective about none of the people in the book, because this is my town and I know most of them. Community activist Frank King, flood victims Troy & Beverly Simon, psychiatrist Janeta Tansey, even entire neighborhoods, like the Czech Village, are described. Mr. Lyons lays out the theory and experts projections of how disasters affect victims, and then the reader sees it unfold over twelve months. One subject of the book, hit hard by the flood, told me that she couldn’t finish the book simply because it was so accurate that it ached to relive it. The reader will understand what actual people went through, not through historical perspective, but through multiple interviews over that first year.
2) The disconnect between the “official facts” and ground-level truth. Ancient politician Pontius Pilate asked it, “What is truth?” Modern politicians ask the same. The flood facts were clear, the statistics well-known, but what was the truth of the heart of the event? This is the main event of the book. People continue to rebuild Cedar Rapids. Our friends in Ames who are just beginning the process of cleaning up last week’s floods. Our neighbors at Lake Delhi were promised the moon when they were front-page news, but then given a commission once folks weren’t paying attention. A community that decides that its reality is its politics, with its soundbites and motiviations, is a lost cause. A community’s reality is its people, with their passions, convictions, needs and triumphs. Mr. Lyons focuses on that disconnect within Cedar Rapids. For a local, it was not always comfortable reading. And that is good journalism.
I hope I never have to live and lead through a disaster like the Flood of 2008. But if I do, I hope that people like the ones described in the book surround me again.
