You can't get there from here

I'll spare you the details, but having your town diced up by a 500-year flood plain full of water to the 800-year mark means getting around town is a puzzle, and getting from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City is pretty nearly impossible right now.

I can't get across our local road, Mt. Vernon Road, to the highway on the east side of town, Hwy 13, without going through the secondary Indian Creek flash flood, so Mt. Vernon Road is closed. If I could get to Hwy 13, I couldn't get to Hwy 30, because Hwy 13 is flooded south of here and north of there. If I could get to Hwy 30, I couldn't get to Mount Vernon and Hwy 1, because Hwy 30 is flooded east of here and west of there. If I could get to Hwy 1, I couldn't get to Iowa City because Hwy 1 crosses the Cedar River just south of Mount Vernon, and — Badabing! — the Cedar River Bridge is either closed or washed out by now.

The direct way is no better. If I could get onto I380 headed south, I couldn't get to Iowa City because I380 is bumper to bumper and stalled the entire way. I'm not sure of the details, but there's a rumor that water is over the road south of here and north of there.

Which is why I didn't go to work today. [Update: Friday neither.]

[Update Update: Saturday, June 14th We've only got four days of drinking (or fire hydrant) water left, with a flood expected to subside to pre-1929 levels by Friday next. Strictly speaking, this a purely bureaucratic Sahara caused by far-sighted city fathers who put three out of four city wells smack down in the middle of the flood plain — sort like putting City Hall, the County Jail and the County Courthouse on Mays Island, smack in the middle of the river. Ba-Rill-Yunt.]