First, I just wanted to thank all of my friends for the birthday wishes.  Sorry I couldn't respond sooner but the day after my birthday is when the floods started to get really bad in Cedar Rapids, IA and I had to leave my house. 

I live about a half a mile away from a small backwater lake off the Cedar River.. enough of a hill and such that I am not even considered in the 500 year flood plain, but the high water mark for where the lake ended is approximately 25 feet from the foot of my driveway.   I had water in my basement before that because we got about 3 inches of rain in a couple of hours Thursday morning. When I knew my basement had gotten 2 inches of water in about an hour coming up from the sewer/storm drains, it seemed like a good idea to get me and my puppy out of here.  Fortunately my mother lives just outside of town so we could crash with her.  I am blessed.  At worst case I may have to replace my water heater and furnace.  Hundreds of people here have lost everything and most don't have flood insurance, like me, because this went so far outside the flood plain maps.  

To put the water in perspective, our normal flood stage for the river is 12 feet.  Friday morning we were at 31.3 or 31.8 depending on which news channel you watch.  

Anyway, I am back in my house as of about a half hour ago.  Getting ready to clean.  Would appreciate prayers for this area.  Would appreciate prayers for me in my job search because I lost of week of searching with not being home and our downtown area has been pretty much destroyed which is going to make the search even harder.

Love you all, will try to check back later but its time for me to pull out the bleach and have some fun in the basement.

Maureen