More rain was heading for flood-ravaged Iowa yesterday, where tens of thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes and officials struggled to reinforce breached levies and stem the rushing waters.
Cedar Rapids got some relief on Saturday as the flood receded more quickly than expected. The city has been hit the hardest, with 1,300 streets submerged and 24,000 of the city’s 124,000 residents forced out of their homes.
But the rushing water was heading straight for Iowa City, where 35 blocks were already inundated and crews loaded sandbags into boats and army trucks to reinforce barricades in danger of breaching.
PHOTO: AP
The college town’s sloping hills will save it from total devastation, but at least 10 percent of its buildings will be inundated by the time the river crests around midnight today, Johnson County spokesman Mike Sullivan said.
And it will take at least a week for the river to return to normal levels.
“This is a flood of epic proportions,” Sullivan said. “It’s absolutely devastating.”
A large swath of Des Moines was underwater after a river levee was breached in the city of 200,000 of Saturday morning and officials were concerned that a forecasted evening thundershower could raise river levels even higher.
Muddy water from the Des Moines River covered several bridges and poured down streets north of the state Capitol, swallowing a neighborhood with about 200 homes and 40 businesses.
At least 2,500 volunteers had registered to help hold the water back by filling and laying down even more sandbags under the hot sun.
“This has been a very trying week for our state,” Iowa Governor Chet Culver said in a statement.
Serious flooding has hit the entire region, including parts of South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The death toll from the extreme weather stands at 16 in Iowa and five more elsewhere in the Midwest.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source