Column -- Fifth Season of Progress

There's only about a month left in “The Fifth Season of Progress.”

n May, the city temporarily changed its civic slogan from “City of the Five Seasons” to “The Fifth Season of Progress.” It was a symbolic gesture to mark the anniversary of the 2008 flood.

I said it was appropriate because this summer is the fifth season since the flood. And progress is needed.

There has been progress. Businesses have reopened, although many are teetering on a pile of debt. Some flooded bars are back in the brew biz.

More hard-working folks have moved back into rehabilitated homes. Volunteers continue to volunteer. Countless gallons of sacrifice, sweat and life savings are being poured into a Cedar Rapids comeback.

Still, you don't have to spend much time in the flood zone to know that it's also The Fifth Season of Waiting.

And more waiting.

Cedar Rapids flood director Greg Eyerly told an audience the other night that it will be December, at the earliest, before anyone gets a buyout check for their flooded home. That big pot of long-awaited federal money we cheered heartily in June has yet to trickle down through a web of agencies and ad ministrators.

Snow will probably fall on hard-hit neighborhoods again before hundreds of homeowners can finally get on with their lives. And that's hard to swallow for folks who thought voting for a sales tax increase in March would grease the skids and cut some checks.

Eyerly, on the job for just a month, is pushing to clean up untouched properties. But he said it will take at least a year to demolish hundreds of homes damaged beyond repair. So flooded neighborhoods will continue to feature a heartbreaking mixture of resilience and depressing decay.

But look on the bright side. We've had open houses, with more glossy informational placards than ever before. And just when you thought we were forgotten, the national media lavished us with attention, coaxed into action by Quaker Oats tubes filled with info and soy milk.

There also have been ample chances to hear bureaucrats at every level talk in grand detail about all the money they've spent and all the people they've helped. I never knew Power Point presentations could be so heartwarming.

“Hang in there,” as Gov. Chet Culver repeatedly told homeowners when he toured flooded areas in June.

It's critical to convince us that the fifth season is progress. Because they know what the next few seasons bring. Elections.

¦ Todd Dorman's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Contact the writer at (319) 398-8452 or todd.dorman@gazcomm.com