Word: cedars
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...really feel that we are the forgotten disaster.' GREG EYERLY, flood-recovery director for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is struggling to rebound from a June 2008 deluge that killed more than a dozen people in several Midwestern states...
...Survivors BBQ. Everyone Welcome," read the handwritten sign tacked onto a recently rebuilt home last weekend in a Cedar Rapids neighborhood still ravaged a year after the city's worst flooding disaster. "We've become stronger - more of a family," says Toni Grimm, the home's owner, talking about her neighborhood, Czech Village, a historic ethnic area bordering the now tranquil Cedar River. Last June, the river swamped 10 square miles of Iowa's second largest city (metro-area pop. 255,000). There are signs of life in the downtown business district, with factories and shops reopened. But whole swaths...
...Czech Village gathering, which drew a handful of neighbors, is among several commemorations being held this month in Cedar Rapids and across eastern Iowa to mark the one-year anniversary of flooding that deluged cities large and small, upending many lives and causing an estimated $10 billion worth of damage ($6 billion in Cedar Rapids alone). Eighty-eight of Iowa's 99 counties were declared a natural disaster area as a result of last year's flooding and two deadly tornadoes. While progress has been made to recover from Iowa's worst disaster, many frustrated homeowners still await government help...
...palpable. Some praise the swift early response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state, which created a special program to help people awaiting buyouts make a down payment on another home. Residents are also thankful for the hard labor of countless volunteers. And in March, Cedar Rapids voters approved a local-option sales tax expected to produce $17 million a year to be used for buyouts. But the city's plan to improve flood protection, redevelop the riverfront and rebuild public facilities remains a concern for some. It includes buying out flood-damaged homes in the flood...
...more apprehensive about Lebanon's future, perhaps because I'd been covering not just the anti-Syrian Cedar Revolution demonstrations, but also ones organized by Hizballah, which viewed the effort to push Syria out of Lebanon as a rearguard attack against the anti-Israeli resistance. It seemed to me that leaving Hizballah, Lebanon's largest political party and its only armed militia, out of calculations for the future was unwise. "Do you ever have any contact with Hizballah these days?" I asked the official. Not only is it illegal for U.S. government officials to have dealings with terrorist organizations...