Charles Apple

Every few hours this weekend, I find myself logging onto the Web site of my former paper, The Des Moines Register, to read the latest about the floods affecting eastern and central Iowa.

I’m not seeing much of the Register’s print work. As of 11 a.m., the Register’s Sunday front was still not posted at the Newseum. But man, oh man, the Register is doing a swell job online.

A few examples…

Some of the worst flooding is happening in Iowa City, a couple hours east of Des Moines and the home of the University of Iowa.

Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register
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All sorts of folks have turned out to try to protect the university from the rising water. Already, 20 campus buildings have been flooded. Here, local folks have formed a chain to pass along sandbags in hopes of shoring up the Adler journalism building:

Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register

Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register

Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register
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At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, though, the efforts came to an end when a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the area.

The water in Iowa City is expected to crest Tuesday at 33 feet — a full four feet over the previous all-time flood record, 15 years ago. Flood stage is 22 feet.

Ace writers Ken Fuson, John Carlson and Tim Higgins detailed the sandbagging efforts:

One-eighth of the campus already has been flooded or was at risk of being flooded, university officials said Saturday.

…An estimated 2,000 volunteer sandbaggers waged a valiant effort Friday and Saturday to protect the campus, including the Main Library and the Lindquist Center, which houses the university’s computer system.

…U of I Librarian Nancy Baker supervised what she called “a triage operation” at the Main Library as volunteers tried to rescue the most valuable of the half-million volumes in the basement.

“We got what we felt was the most critical (materials) out of the basement,” Baker said. “We couldn’t move everything.”

She echoed [University President Sally Mason]: “Now we just wait.”

The area is extensive — one-eighth of the campus is flooded or at risk, Fuson reports — so Register artist Katie VanDalsem Kunert produced this map of the entire Iowa City area. Click the thumbnail, please:

Find a larger version — and a link to an even larger, PDF version — here.

I asked Katie how she pulled this together. She replied:

We’re getting out maps from Google Earth.

Actually, I did all the research for the map. I checked websites all day and plotted the information as it came in. I did get some info from reporter/editor Bryce Miller. He sent me over the list of IU buildings that were closed.

In the meantime, I just kept adding anything to the map I thought might be relevant for readers. We also did this style of map for Des Moines and I’m now working on one for Cedar Rapids today.

Thanks Charles, for noticing our work! We’re working around the clock here in good ‘ol Des Moines. I’ll get some sleep when it’s over. I hope.

Meanwhile, Register multimedia folks Michael Corey and Travis Graven put together a fabulous video that matches up Google Earth zooming aerials of the Iowa City area that then dissolve into current shots of the flooding. It’s an incredible job of giving a bird’s-eye-view of the stricken city:

The photos were taken by the Register’s Harry Baumert and by Dave Schwartz of the Gannett News Service.

Apparently, the folks in Iowa City are able to retain their sense of humor. These recent U of I graduates had to move their wedding and reception Saturday because of the flooding:

Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register
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But — and here’s the big thing — it just keeps on raining.

Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines Register
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Saturday, a levee protecting the north side of Des Moines unexpectedly broke, causing even more damage and evacuations.

Turned out, though, that this wasn’t unexpected at all. The levee had a prominent weak spot. This failure was predicted shortly after the last major flooding in Des Moines, in 1993. The U.S. government had allocated money to design a fix, but not money for the actual replacement.

A team of reporters, including environmental expert Perry Beeman, was all over the story:

The river, which had battered the city’s levee system since early in the week, finally broke through Saturday at a saturated soft spot about 3:30 a.m. The water blew a 100-foot-wide hole in the levee, and authorities immediately issued a mandatory evacuation order as water rolled into the Birdland neighborhood and crews scrambled east to build an emergency dike on Second Avenue ahead of the deluge.

“We got woke up by banging and police lights” shortly after 4:30 a.m., said Ely Villanova, who lives on the south side of Boston Avenue in the nearby Oak Park neighborhood.

Kevin Bauer, owner of Glass Professionals Inc., 700 New York Ave., had two pumps going to keep the water out of his business when police arrived and told him to leave. He refused, and he spent some time in a squad car. No charges were filed.

“We could have stayed on top of it,” he said. “I’m not a happy taxpayer. They treat criminals better than they did me.”

An officer escorted Bauer back to the building later in the day to check on the damage. Bauer waded through 3-foot water and emerged from the building with a box filled with papers and a briefcase.

And naturally, the graphics staff — led by my ex-assistant, Jeff Bash, diagramed what happened to the levee:

I can’t tell you how much pride I’m taking in citing and boldfacing the names of these Register staffers. I spent nearly five years working closely with every one of these folks. Their coverage has been nothing short of asskicking.

Find all of this and more at The Des Moines Register’s Web site.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under Photojournalism, Innovative ideas, Web news design, Newspapers, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.