Flash flooding still affecting Prairie Creek

CEDAR RAPIDS - Although the rain is gone and the sky is clear, parts of southwest Cedar Rapids are still battling flash flooding on their streets and outside their businesses.

Prairie Creek spilled over its banks again Friday afternoon and closed Bowling Street, J Street, Hawkeye Downs as well as the Edgewood Road Bridge. The flash flooding threatened area businesses with water levels that city officials say they haven't seen in six years, and wasn't expected to crest until early Saturday evening.

Judy Pederson, 65, of 2247 Williams Blvd. SW, watched and waited nervously as she watched the waters stream closer and closer to her property. Pederson rents out her J Street property to four local businesses, all of whom were hit hard during last year's flood, and was worried she might have to go through that process again a little over a year later.

“I called the city and they said there was nothing they can do,” Pederson said. “You would think that after a year the city would have been able to do something to help businesses down here.”

When water began to seep over the banks of Prairie Creek Thursday, shop owners and employees at Pederson's J-Street property spent that night moving vehicles, equipment and office supplies, expecting the worse. The water began to recede Friday morning, and they thought it was safe to move it back in. But by 4 p.m. Friday, Prairie Creek told them their work wasn't done yet.

“We thought it was done with... now we're moving stuff again,” said Leslie Runde, 37, from Marion. Her family works out of Runde Welding and were only able to move a few welding trucks and some office supplies before the water around her business got too deep.

“(The flooding) just came out of nowhere. It hasn't rained for a few days and now we're at risk?” Runde said. Runde wasn't alone in her frustration with the delayed flooding. Pederson couldn't understand it either. “There's just no reason for this to be coming up again,” Pederson said. “It isn't happening anywhere else but now our businesses are surrounded.”

Van Smiley, 43, of Central City was out in front of his automotive repair shop at 3939 Bowling St. unloading sandbags. Water was coming up from the storm sewers and was threatening his shop, as wells as a few others in the same building. “It's getting pretty close and we need to be sure (it doesn't flood),” he said, tossing sandbags from the back of his truck.

“I asked some of the guys from the city if they could spare a Tiger Dam just in case,” Smiley said. “They didn't think that was too funny.”

Craig Hansen, the Cedar Rapids Public Works Department Maintenance Director, said that the city measurements over Saturday afternoon showed that the water levels were no longer gaining. He said that the water should start to recede by Saturday night. “Prairie Creek has a longer leg than the other creeks that flooded,” Hansen said. “It takes longer or its crest to occur.”

Hansen noted that the city doesn't measure the creek west of the city, and that the return of flash flooding was news to the city too.

“Creek flooding is very hard to predict,” Hansen said. “The things we've learned from the last few days will help us with any future problems.”

-By Spencer Willelms, Reporter