Low Tide on the Iowa River

Joe Henderson said I could post his letter to the PC to our email list. We have been wondering about this.
Does it worry anyone else? Or are we past caring?

PS We are roofing our house (aka the Titannic) which has been leaking. Feels strange to be doing all this.
Roberta Till-Retz

Two Months Later: Low Tide on the Iowa River


As my family and I were driving to our recently flooded home in the Park View Terrace neighborhood, we noticed how low the river has gotten. As my dad said jokingly, "On Rocky Shore Dr., it looks as if you could walk across the river without getting your knees wet." This puzzles me due to the fact that on June 14th, we canoed to our house from a neighbor's back yard to find a foot and a half of water standing in our back yard, five feet of water in the basement, and eighteen inches of water on the first level. Not to mention water five to six feet deep rushing down our street at about seven feet per second where bikers, runners, and walkers would usually be passing by on any other day.



This scenario concerns my neighbors, and my family included. We would all like to know why the river is so dramatically low now, after it reached record stages only two months ago. We all share a similar concern that the Army Corps of Engineers is holding back large amounts of water in order to accommodate boaters in the Coralville Reservoir. If anyone has any answers, I would very much appreciate hearing them, and most of my neighbors would too, I'm sure.



Joe Henderson, 14