Is the Iowa flooding going to same devastation like New Orleans?

what do you guys think? it looks very bad according to news report. Iowa governor reported that 55 out of 99 counties were flooded. Rapid City is completely over run with deep water.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/13/midwest.flooding.ap/index.html

Different geography. Different attitudes. On a business trip, I flew into Des Moines a few years ago right after a flood (not nearly as bad as this though). When I checked in at the hotel desk, they said the sewage treatment plant had been flooded so the water wasn't safe. Then they issued me four gallons of water and said if I wanted a shower to poke holes in one. These farm hands are going to just wait until the water recedes, then roll up their sleeves. Didn't even seem to notice there was no power.

I'll save the political comentary for another forum. I like hanging around here.

I was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and a few nearby towns just under two years ago. I concur with DesertFox's comments. Relatives of my wife live within two miles of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City.

Also, the water in these areas is going to go away in large part without pumping. Things will drain from the area, while NOLA is below sea level.

Even if the flooding was twice as a bad as NO, a month after it is over, the rest of the nation will forget it.

The people are generally much closer knit with strong sense of community. I am from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area and still have most of my family there. My sisters have been down helping sand bag every night after work, as have many others.

People won't generally be looking for someone to 'blame'. After the '93 flood, they build the levees higher and better - just not enough for a flood of such magnitude. They did what was reasonable and most people will accept that and deal with it.

No.
Here's my take.

1. It's not below sea level, so it will drain. That's a big factor.
2. They CAN evacuate - they have jobs and cars, for the most park.
3. (I can't post 3 here, at least not the way I'd say it at home. Basically, there's a way of thinking about the world that makes a big difference in how you handle adversity).

Re 1 - The amount of drain tile in the surrounding area will play apart in how the city will drain. Its not quite as simple as "it will drain"

Re 2 - From what I've heard/read bridges were closed and I-80 is shut down. The notice to get out of town was given after the bridge was closed.

Cedar rapids is a complete mess, the downtown is flooded to at least the top of the first floor (I've heard that its 32' above the 100 year event).

Midwesterners are a self reliant, close knit group. They'll weather this, and probably come up with some great ideas we've not yet thought of to deal with this.

The thing I find interesting about veiled commentary is that I often attribute the worst possible meaning to it whether that was the comment maker's intent or not. I figure if the person "can't say it here" that it's an unacceptable comment according to the rules of the forum (or polite society HAHA) and I then begin to wonder why there is any need to mention it at all.

Regarding Iowa: My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Iowa, whether they were prepared or not, whether they were caught off guard or not and whatever their general attitudes and beliefs are... These are the same thoughts that I had for the people of New Orleans when they were facing a dark hour.

I think that the people of Iowa, are actually tougher people, who will probably accept it and just do whatever they can to fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again whereas in NO the people just waited for the government instead of doing anything.

I tend to agree with the above, about the resiliency of Midwesterner's, and a different.... work ethic probably isn't the right word, but captures it properly.

Additionally though, Cedar Falls doesn't have nearly a million people to evacuate and shelter. The entire state is essentially a bread-bowl so most can eat, it's a pretty well-confined flood (as opposed to NO where problems were up and down the gulf coast) and they had decent notice to leave.