Haiti Earthquake Aftermath Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

I’ve experienced a number of earthquakes over 23 years in Southern California.

Most are amusing in an odd way: Angelenos feel the quake, quickly ascertain whether it’s big or not, then start offering their Richter guesses.

The 1994 Northridge quake was different. It felt like a bomb exploded and no one was laughing. In an instant we knew it was serious.

Northridge was a 6.7 quake, or the equivalent of a 16.2 megaton explosion.

Last night’s 8.8 quake in Chile was the equivalent of a 15.8 gigaton explosion.

New York Times:

It was more than a year ago that the core of this city was submerged to its rooftops, a result of record flooding on the Cedar River that caused an estimated $6 billion in damage — among the most costly natural disasters since Hurricane Katrina.

The outpouring of attention toward New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, ratcheting up again now as the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, has not been seen here. In fact, the people of Cedar Rapids are feeling neglected.

The recovery here is only limping along as waterlogged buildings are still being gutted, thousands of displaced families remain in temporary housing, and large-scale demolition to make way for a new downtown has just begun.

Federal financing for long-term recovery is trickling in, with the government having committed money for about half of what the city says it needs. And only a fraction of that has actually arrived.

“We really feel that we are the forgotten disaster,” said Greg Eyerly, the city’s flood recovery director. “We don’t make sexy products. We make starch that goes into paper, we make foodstuffs, ingredients in crackers and cereal. We make ethanol. The sexiest thing we make is Cap’n Crunch. We’re not a beachfront property. We make an anonymous contribution to our country, and people forget about us.”

To be sure, Hurricane Katrina’s huge reach and a botched emergency response devastated a far greater swath of the country than did the flooding in the Midwest, and no one here is trying to make tit-for-tat disaster comparisons. No lives were lost in the flooding in Cedar Rapids, and the government’s initial response to the crisis was generally considered a success.

But over the long term, the tone has changed, and the feeling of neglect amid devastation is palpable now. Five weeks of severe weather in the summer of 2008 made disaster areas out of 85 of the state’s 99 counties.

“We’re not making a lot of noise about it,” said Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, reflecting on a sense of Midwestern stoicism. “We’re going about our business. That’s a determination that’s impressive, but it doesn’t attract attention.”

The fact that the media and Democrats cannot find a racial angle might have something to do with it.

From Obama’s Berlin speech:

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Wrong. Sea levels have been rising. The midwest is moist, not dry.

Tigerhawk has the facts, stubborn things that they are.

Once the disaster stories have played out and the media have moved on, those affected are left with a mess before life can resume.

Patrick Thornburg wrote about his hometown of Oakville, Iowa. Now he’s set up a blog to show images of the painstaking work of rebuilding.

See it here.

Patrick Thornburg grew up in Oakville, Iowa, a town of 430 people that was wiped out by the recent flood. If you haven’t read his post, click here.

He sent us these photos today. The sign says Welcome to Oakville.

Patrick’s family homestead is among those below.

The levee which broke and let the flood waters in.

The trailer Patrick’s sister owned, but did not occupy, rotated 90 degrees off axis and tilted. You can see it in the second photo near the center bottom.

Patrick notes:

A partial list of towns with major flooding June 2008:

Wisconsin – Kickapoo River :

Gays Mills
La Farge
Ontario
Hillsboro
Viola
Ontario
Viroqua

Wisconsin – Rock River :

Newville
Janesville
Milton

Illinois – Mississippi River :

Moline
Rock Island
Keithsburg
Gulfport
Quincy
Meyer
Grafton
Hamburg

Missouri  – Mississippi River :

Clarksville
LaGrange
Louisiana
Foley
Winfield
Elsberry
Canton

Iowa  – Mississippi River :

Davenport
Muscatine
Burlington
Fort Madison
Keokuk

Iowa  – Des Moines River :

Des Moines
Eddyville
Ottumwa
Eldon

Iowa  – Cedar River :

Cedar Falls
Waterloo
Vinton
Palo
Cedar Rapids
Rochester
Cedar Bluff

Iowa  – Iowa River :

Tama
Chelsea
Marengo
Iowa City
Fredonia
Columbus Junction
Wapello
Oakville

I haven’t found the names of towns from Indiana and Minnesota.

In my opinion, based on the weather this year, here is the probable cause of the large floods in June.

This past winter, the upper Midwest received very high snowfalls that accumulated without melting.  The snow melted later than normal helping to saturate the ground.  Numerous spring rains soaked even more.  Many farmers have had to delay planting because of the wet ground.

A front stalled across the region causing large rainfalls with measurements of up to 8 inches a day during the first two weeks of June.  The water-logged soil could not soak up any more precipitation causing the large runoffs and the great floods seen. 

Any big rainfalls will cause additional flooding.  We need a dry period to help the ground recover.  Some rain is expected many days this week.

The water from Iowa is making its way downstream, causing floods in Missouri. Some of this is bad luck, some bad planning.

Bob Criss, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was interviewed on Here & Now, and spoke of how paving over flood plains — constricting the area the river has to swell under normal cycles – and then building higher levees has contributed to the disaster. One apt phrase stuck out: “Privatizing the profit, but socializing the risk.”

Listen here.

The state of Iowa has a web site where you can donate to the relief effort.

Patrick Thornburg reports that:

The flood water has dropped but is still above the highways.  Some highways have had their bases washed away so it will take a long time to repair them.  I’ll head down this weekend and have a look.  The normal 75 mile trip (one-way) will be 140 miles because of the water and closed roads.

More video of the devastation.