Cedar Rapids pins hope on 10 miles of new flood barriers

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Facing their secondlargest flood in city history, Cedar Rapids leaders and residents pinned their hopes Monday on a 10mile system of quickly erected flood barriers to protect government buildings, homes and businesses.

Crews scrambled to build the floodwall over the weekend to block the rapidly rising Cedar River because, despite years of discussions, officials haven’t been able to secure funding for permanent flood barriers following a devastating flood in 2008.

“The city had eight years to do this but decided to throw up a temporary system in three days,” said Jim Soukup in the Czech Village neighborhood, which was largely empty after thousands heeded a voluntary evacuation ahead of the river’s anticipated crest on Tuesday.