Cedar Rapids, Iowa July 4 2008
Time Check neighborhood
Members of Castle Rock Community Church of New Orleans at work in Lisa Kuzela’s house in the Time Check neighborhood. The house had about 5 feet of water in its first floor.
Pastor John Gerhardt of Castle Rock Community hauls a load of debris from Lisa Kuzela’s house in the Time Check neighborhood. The church sent 10 people to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City for three days of demolition and recovery work. Gerhardt’s wife Wendy Gerhardt, nee Rhatigan, was born and raised in Cedar Rapids. Castle Rock’s trip north came after a church group from Cedar Rapids cancelled its planned trip to New Orleans for relief work.
John Gerhardt: “We can look at people with all sincerity and say, ‘We can get through this.’ It causes some stress, but you can get through it.”
Gerhardt’s neighborhood had about 6feet of floodwater, about the same as Kuzela’s area of Time Check. He said about half the residents have sinced returned.
“There’s a sprint at the beginning, to get all your stuff out of your house. But then it becomes a marathon.”
Lisa Kuzela snaps a photo of the church crew at work.
Little Bohema neighborhood
If you’re fortunate enough to have been there, you know why the Little Bohemia was one of America’s great corner taverns. If you’re not, you may be too late.
There was substantial debate over the question: Did the neighborhood get its name from the Little Bo, or vice versa? It was a reputed hangout of Grant Wood and Marvin Cone, which sounds reasonable because Cone actually painted it.
1 Comment
July 7, 2008 at 1:42 am
incredible amount of work.