Overview

Almost every year, areas of the Midwest are subjected to massive flooding. Sandbags are filled and stacked, FEMA arrives, and there is a discussion of whether this is a 500-year flood, a 1,000-year flood, or just another typical summer season. This new book looks at a town devastated and rebuilt--that will likely be rebuilt again when the next years' waters rise and puts it in context with the history of the region and the people who have lived there for generations.

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9780762752706

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Reviews

The strength of this book is its narrative, which preserves the voices of the people directly involved in the floods and their immediate aftermath. Centering the volume are the personal interviews (Lyons) conducted with a wide range of subjects, from residents to community leaders...a quick and easy red that underscores the human impact of natual disaster. - The Annals of Iowa Treading Water<br>CHUCK LEDDY, Special to the Star Tribune<p>When the Mississippi River crested 30 feet above its banks in June 2008, tens of thousands of Midwesterners lost their homes, their crops and all their possessions; eventually, the disaster would cost the region tens of billions in damages and trigger incalculable psychological trauma. The Midwest flood was especially hard on Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where journalist Stephen Lyons describes a city caught between Midwestern resilience and growing frustration with the slowness of government recovery efforts.<p>Lyons, who spent his boyhood summers in Cedar Rapids with his beloved grandparents, opens his narrative a year after the flood, observing city leaders commemorating the city's heroism, endurance and come-back spirit. The mayor of Cedar Rapids reads a letter from President Obama praising the tremendous resilience of its people and their commitment to one another. Lyons walks around the city after these lofty speeches and sees something far different: FEMA trailers were still scattered throughout the city. Block after block of abandoned homes ... weeds grew from cracked sidewalks. <p>The strength of Lyons' gripping, nuanced account is that he talks to everyone, from the mayor and the city's business leaders to working-class families rendered homeless and still waiting for recovery money. A full year after the flood, Lyons notes, only about 20 percent of the $3 billion allocated for Iowa relief efforts had been spent.<p>Lyons discovers a widespread disconnect between the boosterism of city leaders and the distressed everyday lives

The strength of this book is its narrative, which preserves the voices of the people directly involved in the floods and their immediate aftermath. Centering the volume are the personal interviews (Lyons) conducted with a wide range of subjects, from residents to community leaders...a quick and easy red that underscores the human impact of natual disaster. - The Annals of Iowa Treading Water<br>CHUCK LEDDY, Special to the Star Tribune<p>When the Mississippi River crested 30 feet above its banks in June 2008, tens of thousands of Midwesterners lost their homes, their crops and all their possessions; eventually, the disaster would cost the region tens of billions in damages and trigger incalculable psychological trauma. The Midwest flood was especially hard on Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where journalist Stephen Lyons describes a city caught between Midwestern resilience and growing frustration with the slowness of government recovery efforts.<p>Lyons, who spent his boyhood summers in Cedar R

Author Information

Stephen J. Lyons is the author of A View from the Inland Northwest: Everyday Life in America (Globe Pequot) and Landscape of the Heart (Washington State University). He is two-time recipient of a fellowship in prose writing from the Illinois Arts Council and has published articles, reviews, essays, and poems in numerous anthologies and publications, including Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Salon, and High Country News.

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