Despite all possible efforts by fate and circumstance, the details of which shall be chronicled later for posterity, I have made it safely to New York. Emily's showering right now, and soon we shall be off to go get student rush tickets for tonight's Spring Awakening!

Also going to the CB: I Hate Perfume gallery today, which will probably be seven hundred kinds of awesome. The end.

I am bringing more BPAL than it is physically possible for you to test in a week, I am pretty sure.

Article in today's NY Times: In Iowa, Life’s Possessions Become Debris Piles

Also, some good comparison pictures:

Cedar Rapids: Before the Flood


Cedar Rapids: Flooded


And that doesn't even show the extent to which the water spread on the west side of the river.

I got an e-mail from Theatre Cedar Rapids on Wednesday saying that the building was hopefully "right outside" of the flood plain. It's sort of crazy to think how much changed in a period of 24-48 hours. I got these pictures from the "Help Theatre Cedar Rapids with flood cleanup" Facebook group. It's hard to see, when I think of all of the happy memories I had in this place growing up.

( Pictures of what once was TCR )

It's raining. Severe thunderstorms through tomorrow.

This is fucking retarded.

I know that it's so incredibly unimportant in the scheme of things, but I would really like to shower.



The image above (courtesy of the CR Gazette) is the downtown Dairy Queen - where I had my first job, at the age of 15.

A video I made today while downtown at the water's edge after putting together sandbags. The quality didn't come out that well when I compressed it, oh well.

Back from sandbagging - it was hard work, but it really does make you feel proud to be part of such a great community when you're standing out in the heat with kids as young as 10 who are helping shovel sand into bags. Those bags, as I understand it, are all going to the main city location where residents can pick up free sandbags to protect their homes.

A lot of people have been asking me for information on how to help. I have been looking, and finally found some good information (from the New York Times, of all places - but in our defense, most news sources here are busy just trying to get emergency information to citizens... we really aren't even in the clean-up or recovery stage at all, yet).

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Volunteers at several relief organizations said they were establishing special funds and sending disaster teams to the region to decide what to donate and how to allocate the cash donations.

Following is a list of organizations seeking donations:

The American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013. (800) 842-2200, or, for Spanish speakers, (800) 257-7575.

The American Red Cross of Greater New York, P.O. Box 9140, Church Street Station, New York, N.Y. 10256.

AmeriCares, 161 Cherry Street, New Canaan, Conn. 06840. (800) 486-4357.

Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, Ind. 46515. (219) 264-3102.

World Vision, P.O. Box 1131, Pasadena, Calif. 91131. (800) 423-4200.

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I'll be sure to update with more when I get them. I've heard that FEMA is now in town, so they should be starting to evaluate and make assessments. The problem is that the water hasn't receded at all yet (in fact, it seems to still be coming, despite the fact that the rain has stopped) so it's difficult to make any sort of recovery efforts or damage assessments. Again, we are just simply still in the emergency rescue and response mode. New mandatory evacuations have just been issued in Iowa City and Coralville, where the water continues to rise as levees break.

They need sandbaggers down at 4th Ave. and 8th St. SE, so I'm heading down to help.

This is really good news. A lot of people have pets here, but the shelters won't allow them inside. In addition to this, the main animal shelter had to evacuate due to flooding, and most other kennels and shelters are full. I worked with a lot of people who were in tears yesterday over the animals they had to leave at home - when they left, they were only expecting a few feet of water. Now those houses are almost completely submerged.