If you're not from Iowa, then you probably have no idea what's going on in Northeast Iowa right now.
We're being flooded.
By flooded, I don't mean "Oh look, the river is a bit high right now." I mean "Oh look, the town is underwater."
Scary, right? Also what's scary is sitting in the middle of your college class and having the power go out for an hour.
That was me this week. And even though I come from an area where flooding happens, I've never experienced this.
I've also never experienced a community come together like this either.
Right away, students, faculty and community members got to sandbagging wherever they could. Students wandered neighborhoods helping citizens move what they can.
Even though I had class and music lessons in the afternoon; a friend and I headed out as soon as we could.
Right away, I was blown away by the operation. there was one person shovelling into the bag another person was holding then a third person would tie the bag and move it to the pile before another crew would load trucks and the last crew would take the bags into the community and disperse them.
Most of all I was blown away at how this community bands together to help the city we call home most of the year. The site I was helping at was mostly Wartburg students, but I believe only 2 of them were actually originally from the city of Waverly and there were over 50 there. I'm from Illinois, the person tying my bags was from Minnesota and the girl next to me was from Colorado. But we didn't care. This is our city and we're going to save it. Professors cancelled classes, sports cancelled practices, choirs cancelled rehearsals. Students from everywhere were stuffing sand into bags.
In the end, Waverly didn't end up getting flooded as bad as other places; but our sandbagging has helped. But the student helping hasn't stopped. We've reached beyond our immediate community and started going into surrounding communities where levees have broke and the water is higher to help.
As of right now, levels are starting to crest and there's not much more we can do as a community, but I know that as soon as levels go down; my Wartburg community will be right back out there helping clean up.
That is enough for me.
This is why I love the community that I'm in. Students are ready to give up time they probably can barely spare to help the community that has taken them in.
The situation isn't over yet though. We're expecting more rain in the coming days and the river still hasn't crested in places. That being said, please keep Northeast Iowa and the communities effected in your thoughts and prayers.
