What It’s Like To Live In A City That’s Had 3 Climate Disasters In 12 Years

The writer stands by a tree in her Cedar Rapids, Iowa, neighborhood damaged by a Category 4 windstorm called a derecho in early August of this year.

This house was one of the lucky ones, and the family who owned it before us restored it and moved back in. Over time, our nearby Main Street was rebuilt. It took about six years, but eventually our city got back on its feet. This time the community knew what deep water could look like. Troops arrived early to build an emergency natural berm to fortify the riverbank. Citizens sandbagged every building that flooded back in 2008. We refused to lose it all a second time.

That next week, I watched the river rise every morning from drone camera footage streaming on Facebook Live. I scanned the grainy feed for a glimpse of my house. The river rose to its second-highest recorded level, but the emergency berm held a lot of the water back. There was some damage to businesses closest to the river, but my house and much of the neighborhood stayed dry. Within a week the evacuation order was lifted, power restored, and the community began to slowly reopen.

I grabbed my cat and dog and we took cover in the basement. Upstairs the whole house shook violently. I heard breaking glass and rattling doors. There was crash after crash as trees fell. I wasn’t sure if the house above my head would still be there when we came above ground. I didn’t know if my husband would be safe or not. I threw up down the front of my shirt.

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