Flood commemorations begin Saturday in Waterloo, Palo

Plants, parades and music videos will be among the ways Iowa communities commemorate the historic flooding of June 2008.

In Palo, plants will be delivered to every household Saturday, May 30. Upriver in Vinton, residents are invited to view a feature-length film and a music video as part of the Benton County community's commemoration of flooding there.

According to the Rebuild Iowa Office, commemoration events in disaster-affected areas will occur well into June, with some taking place later in the summer

Commemorations will get underway Saturday when the Rebuild Palo Fund Inc., which partnered with Anderson-Bogert Engineers & Surveyors, Inc., delivers plants to homes in the northwest Linn County community between 9 a.m. and noon. People interested in helping deliver the plant are asked to contact Megan Murphy at meganpalo@netins.net or (319) 851-2731. Volunteers are asked to meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Cedar River Garden Center, 2889 Palo Marsh Rd., Palo, to load flowers onto trucks and deliver them to households.

Also Saturday, as part of the annual "My Waterloo Days" community celebration, Waterloo will be

marking the anniversary of flooding there beginning with a parade from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 30. The theme is "Together We Weathered the Storms." An Iowa National Guard helicopter will land at Lafayette Park around 11 a.m., and a community picnic will follow from noon to 4 p.m.

Lt. Gen. Ron Dardis, executive director of the Rebuild Iowa Office, will deliver comments about the statewide recovery effort around noon in Lafayette Park.

In Vinton, the feature-length video "24.7; The Vinton Area Flood of 2008" will premiere at 2 p.m. June 6 at the Palace Theater in Vinton.

The film, which includes interviews with people affected by the flood, as well as officials and emergency management personnel, was produced by Vinton resident Brian Larkin and a former Vinton resident Kirk Monson. In addition, a music video of the community's disaster will be shown.

Tickets to the premiere are $8 with all proceeds going to the Benton County Disaster Relief Coalition. Following the premiere, DVDs of the film will be available for purchase, with half the money raised going to the Coalition.

The theme for Mason City's June 7 commemoration is "River City Rises, Recovers & Remembers." The disaster will be marked by a program and community picnic at East Park from noon to 4 p.m. Dardis will deliver comments about last summer's disaster and recovery efforts during the program which begins at 1 p.m. at the East Park Band Shell. The rain location will be at Music Man Square.