CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Flooding rivers across Iowa forced residents to evacuate, with at least 10,000 people in Cedar Rapids among them as the rising Cedar River burst through an earthen levee.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said storm and water damage to infrastructure will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as dozens of bridges have been damaged or destroyed. Nine rivers were at or near record levels, he said. More rain has been forecast for the coming days.
"It hits everything. Colleges are shut down, stores, it's devastating," said Lisa Fox, vice president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.
"Cedar Rapids is completely shut down," she said of Iowa's second-largest city, where around 100 city blocks were flooded and a rail bridge collapsed. "It's going to be a long-term recovery."
The evacuations in Cedar Rapids, population 120,000, followed a round earlier Thursday when some residents of Iowa City and Cedar Bluffs were also told to head for higher ground.
Cedar Rapids' power is out for most of downtown, complicating rescue efforts, city spokesman Dave Koch told NBC News.
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Last edited by Boone; June, 12th, 2008 at 03:50 PM.
Reason: :p
June, 11th, 2008, 11:16 PM
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Flooding rivers across Iowa forced residents to evacuate, with at least 10,000 people in Cedar Rapids among them as the rising Cedar River burst through an earthen levee. 
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