Gazette has full series of reports on Eastern Iowa flood anniversary

This was part of my Sunday, June 6, Gazette column:

You wonder how many more years will pass before people in flood prone parts of Eastern Iowa stop thinking about the Great Flood of 2008.

Quite a few, most who experienced the flood would guess.

Beyond its historic credentials, people will recall the flood because they still will be dealing with it. Two years after the Cedar and Iowa rivers did their damage affected residential neighborhoods in Cedar Rapids remain unsettled. Despite the progress by some business owners a lot of downtown Cedar Rapids storefronts, including a landmark like the Paramount Theatre, remain boarded up.

Though spared as much damage as inflicted in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Coralville still deal with the flood's aftermath. The University of Iowa is only in the early stages of relocating its arts campus. Flood control construction has started in Coralville.

We used several pages of the Sunday, June 6, Gazette to check in on this flood recovery, looking at what Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville and other parts of Eastern Iowa have accomplished and how businesses have coped. Today, Monday, June 7, we have a story about Cedar Rapids residents who have moved back next to the Cedar River. Their reasons vary but include loving their old neighborhood too much to leave and simply playing the odds that another disastrous flood will not happen in their lifetimes.

On Tuesday, we'll tell you about the flood's continued, long-lasting impact on people.

Versions of this coverage is available at GazetteOnline, as well.

Questions we want to answer in the coming week include: do people outside of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor understand the extent of damage being repaired here, how important is a thriving downtown Cedar Rapids and what is going to be done about permanent flood protection?

The coverage will look forward, especially next Sunday on June 13, the record-setting day in Cedar Rapids' history.

We already know what happened two years ago on that day. No need to go back.