Memories can’t be demolished

Last year, 139 flood-damaged houses on the Cedar Rapids “most dangerous” list fell to demolition crews.

Last month, the city began focusing on 281 more homes deemed an imminent threat to public health and safety.

By this fall, the city expects to have demolished about 700 flood-damaged properties.

Federal and state disaster funds are covering the costs of this massive demolition effort. No one, though, can even begin to estimate the value of memories tied to these homes and their neighborhoods.

For many, the demolition provides needed, if painful, closure. Harvey Nelson, for example. The 90-year-old watched quietly as a crew smashed down his home at 1725 Ellis Blvd. NW earlier this month. The building had served as a home and store for his father's grocery business for three decades. Harvey and his wife, Clairbel, eventually bought the building and - after the 1961 flood - converted the store into living areas.

Harvey spent 81 years of his life in that house. He and Clairbel raised four children. Friends gathered there for parties. It was a good life.

Then the 2008 flood roared in and he had to evacuate - one day after Clairbel died.

It was hard to see the home demolished but it was necessary, he told a Gazette reporter.

And so it is for thousands of other folks who grew up, raised families and became the fabric of historic neighborhoods such as Time Check and Czech Village. The flood has forced the biggest changes and decisions of a lifetime for many. Yet they have something that can never be washed away: memories.

Some good, some not so good. Yet all uniquely theirs to cherish and to share as they choose. And all more lasting than the wood, glass and walls that once housed those special moments.