If you are one of my blog readers you may be tired of hearing about Cedar Rapids. The flood recovery battle continues. Taylor Elementary School is one of the flood casualties. My wife and daughter teach there and I have volunteered there for a number of years. Today the faculty and staff officially get tossed to the four winds - reassigned to other schools. To mark the occassion, my lovely wife made this video.

Remember - you can help us recover. Eat more oatmeal and come to the 2009 DIII Nationals.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLY6s5kribs

Dear Jim,

Thanks so much for sharing your wife's video. It's an incredible juxtaposition of images -- from the happy picnic scenes, to the school underwater, and, later, the furniture outside.

It's sad to hear that the faculty and staff will be sent to other locations. What about the children who normally would attend Taylor? Or is it that they too are scattered to the four winds, too, and will now be going to the neighborhood school where they are now?

I can only imagine how upsetting this must be to all of those who call Taylor School home -- another upset in a summer of heartache. (I think about the stories here in Cincinnati about children being relocated from familiar schools to brand-new ones, and how upsetting that's been for them (sometimes leading to violence and property damage)... and that's without any of the flood-related issues the children of eastern Iowa are dealing with.)

I'll be keeping the Taylor family in my prayers.

Thanks for sharing.
Mark

$232 Million+ in damage at U Iowa.

http://media.www.dailyiowan.com/medi...xtemailedition

As far I can read into this one, the value is for physical damage only. It doesn't include business interruption (loss of revenue and extra expense for mitigating damages)

Jim - Please give our condolences to your wife and daughter (and your community). The local school is often the heart of a neighborhood - it must be very painful to have to deal with the breakup.