Iowa in a 500 or 1,000 Year Event

"good mornin george...

this one ain't pretty! i have 2 sisters in iowa, who, by observation, confirm EXACTLY what Rob wrote yesterday about the crops. we grew up together on a farm in north central ia so they know what they're looking at. and ya, he's right, this IS contrary to "official" reports claiming 98% of corn crop planted. i've read 'em. as recent as last weekend.

they're getting hammered up there. 10 states affected. 55 of 99 ia counties declared disaster. sis 1, who still lives near the old homestead, has it pretty bad. her basement flooded for the first time in history. and mason city, a corncobs throw up the corn row from her, has NO potable drinking water. but sis 2, who lives down near ia city, is claiming braging rights. so far. more on that in a minute (been talkin to her all nite on the radio and monitoring upstream gauges). but first, she sez maybe... maybe, half the corn is planted in her 'hood. and could very well be that half of that half is half way to the gulf by now with more to follow as the rains continue to fall and the waters continue to rise.

we're at mid-june and almost too late to plant corn at those latitudes. now a shortage of early variety seeds as well. not to mention, certainly some of what is planted is in severe stress. bound to have adverse affect on yeilds.

rob is right about this too... generally plan B is to switch to beans. BUT... what he didn't say is that some acres had already been pre-dressed with nitrogen and/or certain herbicides making them non-compatable with beans. latest i ever remember planting crops was june 22. that was in '63.

how bad is it and what do some of the experts say? "It will take a miracle because of what we've seen in the fields", said isu extension agronamist palle pederson. "I've never seen anything like this. Some of our best fields have been lost." that was after touring central iowa's best fields on sunday george. the I-80 corridor runs through central ia. over on the eastern end it splits ia city to its south and cedar rapids to its north. running right through the heart of cr, 2nd largest city in the state, is the cedar river. it was only 3' above flood on sunday. monday prediction was for a crest of 21'.... 18' higher than the day pederson saw it. how close was that? not very. its totally underwater. everybody probably knows that already. all-time record crest... 20' in 1929. expected to crest today at 32'! 'spose there's some erie correlation to market crashes here george? thats TWELVE FEET above the record! 20' above flood stage!! above the 500 year flood plain as well!!! i wonder what pederson will say now?

ia city, in the iowa river water shed, not expected to crest until tuesday due to massive water in the upstream coralville lake. sis 2's #2 son owns a dry cleaner in ia city. family rallied last nite to sand bag. then the sand ran out. the pit's flooded!

parts of I-80 closed last night, the 2 major parallel feeders north and south of the corridor are already closed. that is THE major east/west coast to coast commerce feeder on the northern route! potable water supplies at critical stage. power outages. 911 down in places. roads and rail lines washed out. bridges washing away. mandatory evacs including the hospital in cr last nite. it goes on and on. if thats what the infrastructure looks like imagine what the fields look like.

and get this george, last week sis happened to be going by the site ia city pub works uses to pile snow removed from the streets. it still had a patch of the stuff standing!! they're coming off a winter reminiscent of 50 years ago. growing up back on that farm we had winters with lotsa snow. including white outs. we'd string bailing twine from the house to the barn and then to the hog house and chicken house so we wouldn't get lost doing the chores. been many a year now when all you could see was black dirt for miles for weeks on end. but the switch to mild winters happened over many years. this winter was a 180 about face. and now this.

speaking of braging rights, sis 3 lives in twin cities area. men-a-soooooo-ta.... land of 10,000 lakes. eye-wa... the tall corn state. 1 and 2 are now claiming iowa as the 6th great lake!

used to be a loaf of bread in the pantry was a loaf of bread in the pantry. now its on it's way to n'awlins! about 4 and half months too early and several million bushels short!"

Another reader with the Illinois emergency services agency says the NWS has alerted them that this is a 100-year situation for Illinois and we hear it'll be a 500 or 1000-year event elsewhere..