Thousands in Iowa evacuate homes ahead of flooding

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Several thousand residents of Cedar Rapids left their homes Sunday as floodwaters began to spill out of the rising Cedar River, and Iowa’s secondlargest city worked to apply the lessons officials learned after the record 2008 flood.

The river crested Saturday night in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, which are about 55 miles upstream from Cedar Rapids, which is Iowa’s second-largest city with about 130,000 people.

The water levels in Cedar Falls and Waterloo were slightly lower than had been expected, but they still reached levels that were second only to those in 2008, when a major flood devastated the region.

The National Weather Service predicted that the river will crest at 23 feet in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday morning.