Bringing Halloween fun back to the flood zone no easy task

“Hey, Chuck,” 4-year-old William Hall called to his neighbor as he peered at Chuck Hartson's front yard, strewn with severed heads, limbs and headstones. “Is that a new vampire head?”

“Yeah, that's new, buddy,” Hartson answered.

“Each year, you go out and buy another tombstone,” said Hartson, 43. “Another arm, another head.”

It's a gory tradition Hartson and neighbor Bill Hall are renewing, with a little help from William and his two older brothers, 16 months after both families were flooded out of their northwest Cedar Rapids homes.

Their creepy display at the corner of G Avenue and 10th Street NW is a spot of light and life on the edge of a river-haunted neighborhood where many blocks remain dark and many houses remain empty.

“It's pretty scary down here,” said Larry Kelley as he helped his wife, Clara, untangle a string of spider-shaped lights.

“We'd love to have some trick-or-treaters,” Clara Kelley added.

The Kelleys have done Halloween up big since they moved to 1861 Ellis Blvd. NW in 1993. Their house took on about 3 feet of water but because it's slightly elevated above most of the surrounding blocks they were able to move back within a week or two, living in a mobile home as they repaired the damage.

Living at the flood's farthest reach, Hartson and Hall were also home by Halloween 2008 - barely, in Hall's case.

“It was kind of a goal of sorts, to get ourselves back, and get all this back, too,” said Hall, 34, a product manager and network administrator for Ideal Computer Systems.

The Halls had about a foot of water at 1005 G Ave. NW. Hartson, next door at 1009, received about half that.

Fortunately for the Kelleys, Halls and Hartsons, Halloween decorations are the kind of thing you store above the rafters in your garage. With the exception of a few items, all three collections weathered the flood - even the Kelleys' casket.

Last Halloween was quiet - “just a trace of kids,” said Hartson, recently laid off from his job with a concrete contractor. With another year's recovery, all three families expect more door-to-door trade Saturday.

“We're getting quite a few more neighbors down here this year, if you look around,” said Larry Kelley, 56, owner of Kelley's Auto Body. “This neighborhood was just transitioning to younger and younger kids. It was just so cool.”

The curfew still enforced in the flooded area doesn't take effect until 9 p.m., late enough to be a non-issue for trick-or-treaters. Meanwhile, all three displays continue to grow, right up through Saturday - Hartson will install smoke generators and strobe lights, the Kelleys will add that casket.

“As people are moving back, people are doing what they did before,” Kelley said. “It's sad that we lost so many neighbors, but more people will come and fill in, you'll see.”