Word: flooded
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This week in Coralville, Dave Metzler watched bulldozers raze the flood-ravaged building that housed his business and home - the Coral Lanes bowling alley, which Metzler lived above. "They're driving over the lanes and tearing them up like firewood at a campsite. It's a terrible sound," says Metzler, standing beside a 14-foot high mountain of debris. But, he adds, "I've cried enough over this. There's no tears left...
Metzler is not among the estimated 1% of Iowans with flood insurance, so he appreciates the help he's received, including $250 in food assistance for the month, $300 a week in "unemployment-type disaster relief" and personal phone calls from a FEMA official. Staying with friends as he awaits a possible FEMA trailer, Metzler is determined to restart his business elsewhere in town. "Heck yeah," he says. "You've got to have a bowling alley in Coralville...
...Thorn's house along the Iowa River, which took in over nine feet of water. "It was awful to see 20 to 30 years of stuff lying in your driveway," Thorn says, but adds, "that's over with. So we get to start over again." Thorn, who did have flood insurance, praises the disaster relief effort so far. "The folks that I've dealt with, although there's been no resolution, have been terrific," he says...
...wife relocated on June 7, and "out of a suitcase" in Iowa City. "I'm going to be able to write a hell of a book about cheap motels in the Iowa City-Coralville area," jokes Thorn, who works at the University of Iowa. Repair costs at the flood-damaged campus itself are estimated at $232 million...
...back ailment and is unemployed, says he has received only $1,200 and hopes for more. The family not only lost the rental home where they lived but another home they own (and were on the verge of selling, Slaymaker says). They did not have renters or flood insurance. The family also wants to move to a FEMA trailer in Cedar Rapids, closer to Kara's nursing home job and the children's schools. "I've just put my life in God's hands," says Slaymaker. "I don't know what else...