Flood Facts

Iowa is now a disaster area. The following facts were forwarded by state representative Nathan Reichert. More than 2,500 Iowa Army National Guard· 200 Iowa State Patrol· 1,000 plus Iowa DOT· More than 150 Iowa DNR· Sandbags: more than 4.8 million· Pumps: 114

Remember that it is illegal to walk in flood water unless you are evacuating.

Reuben Collins was a physicist I knew in college who made me learn the second law of thermodynamics--the law of entropy. Every system left to itself will change in such a way as to approach equilibrium. This means that there are more randomness, not less.

Natural disasters should not be interpreted as God's will since floods do not have a moral consciousness.

It's easy to blame the city planners for not building a better levy since that relieves some of the guilt that the flooding is deserved. I think at the time the levys were built, intelligent cost/benefit analysis was employed to determine how high the walls should be built.

Tonight, the flood waters are creeping closer to me. Every minute more and more sightseers come to take pictures and give thanks that the flood is happening to someone else. I have feelings of empathy for those in Wapello who are being evacuated and those in Cedar Rapids who are now without water for the second day.