evacuate. we will get everyone back in soon as we can. saturday, if things go well and people have access to their businesses and their homes and if the 1st line of protection is successful, that maybe we can get people back in earlier. we have another day to get things done. i know everyone has been if there are people in the community that still need help moving their stuff, please, don't be bashful, don't be afraid to call 211 and say you need help. i know i talked with a couple people, you are busy at the city. you don't have time for us. we do. we have time for everyone. but we need to know. so please give 211 a call.

as you are gathering your stuff today, packing a suitcase, getting her medications, plan on being out until saturday. please take heed and respect the city's call for evacuation. thank you. >> thank you mayor corbett and we appreciate the leadership of members of cedar rapids. before we take questions, i want to acknowledge that we have 2 utility partners here. 1st doug from alliant energy. >> thank you. we've been getting a lot of questions, i want to respond to

i want to give you a sense that are planning has gone well. we've executed our plan and are in really good shape. employees of than a great job responding to the needs and preparing us. secondly, i want to hit on safety. you heard request for evacuation. i want to absolutely endorse that. want to make it clear that while we are in a better situation today as a power company, there is no guarantee that you will have power. if you are hopeful that you can stay in your home and you think you will have power to help you get through that, i want to tell you today, do not think about that. we don't know where we will have outages. we are in much better shape, but at the risk of being detailed i'm going to give you a sense of how this works. in 2008 we had a much broader outreach because we were not

this is a bit of an oversimplification. but just to get a feel. what will do is monitor the flood levels on those circuits. we will actually, where appropriate and there is a safety concern, we will shut down a circuit. it will be impacted potentially bike risk to the lowest level equipment in that area. that area, but the water will come in contact with. you maybe high and dry so to speak but you could experience an outage because we will need to take out that circuit. historically, back in 2008 it was a broad area. italy much smaller this time. we are hoping to keep more people online during the course of the flood. but i don't want assumptions made that, it will be okay, they said the system is better and i can stay in my home. and expect to weather the storm. i want to make that clear. there have been questions about

about evacuating. please evacuate. don't count on the power being on and you can sit and watch tv water passes through the city. we don't know that for sure and we can't guarantee that. so hopefully that helps with some of the questions. we will be around afterwards. if you have specific questions related to your situation we have a number of people here today to help answer those and we will try to do it one-on-one as best as we can. i also want to take one moment to maybe that is not the best place but i wouldn't -- i want to make sure we acknowledge the work of the city and county employees. all the things they have done. it has been phenomenal. it's wonderful to see how volunteers have responded. we are appreciative of all of that and thankful that our employees pitched in. thank you. >> thank you.

ryan gibbs from mid-america energy. our key account representative. good morning thank you for the opportunity to come here and give you an update. mid-american energy is working with the city and linn county emergency management officials to respond to e expected to occur in the cedar rapids area on tuesday morning. mid-american energy is shutting off natural gas services to properties that could be affected by rising water. this action helps ensure the safety of our customers and reduces the amount of damage to her natural graphs if the structure. gas service was disconnected to 1100 properties on saturday. and midamerican energy crews

potential 1700 properties before monday. we are contacting affected customers by an automated phone call before disconnecting service. additionally, customers who may be worried about their properties can contact mid- american energy at 888 888427 888-427-5632, 888 888427 888- 427-5632 service disconnect. there is no charge for mid- american energy to disconnect and restore natural gas services due to flooding. after the flood threat has passed, mid-america energy will provide a follow-up call to let customers know when the service restoration will begin. if a property does not sustained damage, mid-america energy will need access to

if access is not available, personnel will leave a door tag asking customers to call us so we can set up an appointment for service restoration. if your home or business was affected by floodwater or sewage backup, the city's building services will request a gas restore after the property has passed inspection. water damaged equipment must be replaced. midamerican energy personn will begin restoring gas service to properties not affected by flooding was the area water recedes. we remind everyone when reentering the property, be aware that natural gas lines, as well as electric lines can be hiding in water and flooding buildings. do not enter an area if you smell natural gas. and we all know it has a very pungent rotten egg or skunk like odor.

the area immediately. do not use a cell phone until you have reached a safe location. from the safe location please call midamerican energy at 1 800 595 at 1 800-5955 3 at 1-800-595- 5325. 100 105 and 5 105 and 55325. to report the other. we will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available and we thank you for your patience. >> thank you. we're going to take time now for the asking of questions for various representatives. >> when i 1st found out about this i was sick at heart because i went through it in 2008.

water is going down on the dam because you listed the gates. and actually they emptied out the whole cedar river through the waterloo when they lifted up all the gates after they built it by hitting the wrong buttons. so it's amazing what you can do. my concern is, i was one block from the river, i have a template barn style building made of wood. it was filled with heavy stuff in the water took a half block away. i was looking at all the hesco barriers on 1st street northwest, and it dawned on me what you are actually doing is your starting to build the dike. did you ever think about that?

they even want you to consider asphalt, a cube of asphalt will last forever. i think you'll have to reinforce the barriers because the water is going to be too strong for them and while you're doing that, why don't we keep building this thing, -- especially if a packet down it will get like ce this will be a base. why tear down, because it could flood again in a month. how do we know? that is one last thing. this idea of 100 year flood and the 500 year flood, people think it's only going to happen once in 100 years. no. it's going to happen, 100 year

500 year flood is .5 percent chance per year. that is the way i take it. that is why -- the way so many people took it. we have to change that definition. it's a false sense of security. thank you. >> thank you for those comments. any other questions?

[ question - too far from mic ] the question has to do with the design and effectiveness of the hesco barriers city has been building in order to protect the community. >> thank you for your question. we have had engineers looking at that. while the projected forecast of the river is at 23.5, we have done all the hydraulic calculations and that is why the system is currently build to a minimum of 26 feet. it takes into account any increase in elevation due to putting the system in place.

on one correction to the statement i made earlier. we have been able to postpone the closing of edwards -- edgewood road. at this time it is still open. we anticipate closing it earlier this evening. >> we will take a couple of media questions. >> my question has to do with the hesco barriers . people in the community are affected. >> the question about the alignment of the hesco barriers in the engineering and design that went into where those are placed and why. >> because that area, once we get south of that 8 avenue we have a low-lying area in the

that was put in as a 2nd layer of protection along their. our primary line of defense will be the barriers put in a long 16th. sometimes we have waters coming in but just from the river but from the backsides of properties in the low-lying areas. that was put in as another measure of protection. >> thank you. >> believe we have had any reports of looting so far. >> what with the city recommend people do with their garbage in garbage cans and what would people be able to do with trash while they are leaving the evacuation. >> it's a question about trash, what to do with garbage cans

>> if they can temporarily place them inside a building or structure would be one way to hold them on the property. and if they have kept them in a bag, potentially when they go to an area outside the evacuation zone, they can bring that with them. again, as i noted we will be very flexible in terms of taking additional culture we should outside the evacuation area for people who may have moved outside for that time. in addition, we will follow up next week and make sure we take extra bags in that evacuation area to make up for the coming week. >> thank you steve. anymore media questions?

back into their homes? >> the question was if people worked overnight will they be able to get back to their homes. i would have to stay, say if there homes in the projected impact area the answer is no. we do have plans, as may have been stated, we planned for 28, is where the checkpoints and perimeter set up. systematically reduce the amount as we get a better idea of the extent of the floodwaters. thank you. >> thank you. that is a good reminder that we are prepared to be flexible and to communicate changes that occur. and we want to make sure that we protect the public, but as we get new information, we will

requirements. i will get to see -- sir. >> when edgewood closes would there be a possibility of using the new highway 100 is another way across? >> this is a question about the closure of edgewood and any ultimate means of access including the highway 100 bridge. >> with dot but at this time -- we continue to coordinate with dot that at this point we do not anticipate using 100 as an alternate means. >> any further questions? >> will the curfew be continuing ?

reason for the curfew is for safety of persons and property. until further notice, the curfew will be from 8 pm until 7 am. and while i am here, let me please reemphasize and reiterate, to those residents who are going to evacuate, we ask that you lock your doors, secure your residence, as long as a residence is unoccupied our 1st responders have no intention of forcing entry into an unoccupied or vacant home. so please, when you leave, lock your doors and that will assist us in keeping property safe. thank you. >> did you get your question answered? thank you. yes?

>> we appreciate that. anything else? yes? >> any ideas on what they plan to do with houseboats? to make sure they don't break loose? >> is our building services director here? repeated. it had to do with the boats on the river, the houseboats. and what are the plans for those. >> i will have the parks director come up as well, i do know that there was at some point, i believe the services, electrical services have been cut for houseboats. is that correct? and they also know that in

if the houseboats can raise and fluctuate with the river. >> thank you for the question. we contacted the ellis carver community wednesday. started removing their boats and other personal belongings. we advise them that electricity would lightly -- likely be shut off last night. i don't know if it has been turned off yet, but that figure wa water gets to the flood stage of 16 feet or when a line had personnel challenges that is when it would be cut off. my observation yesterday is all boats or out of the ellis harbor area. a lot of great activity, thanks to the association for getting the word out. since 2008 when the harbor was being reconstructed and repopulated, there were safety measures installed on the boat

fall up to about 24 feet plus redundant cable. if the welds and hinges were to break, the boats would stay attached to another safety point. as a matter of design and hustle getting out of there, the harbor is as well prepared as it could be. with the curfew, that area is in a curfew area, once ellis boulevard is closed off, curfew is in place, there will be no access by the harbor tenants to the river., to those areas. >> i would like to thank our interpreters for the deaf. vacation is very important to the city in a variety of ways. this is a new addition to be sensitive and make sure that all citizens of cedar rapids are receiving critical

on the same lines, we will be having our next news conference tomorrow morning right here. at 10 am. >> we will look at some things mentioned. 1st thing, the good is is lots of progress was made yesterday by this evening all preparations will be complete. we will take a look at the sandbagging locations. this is where you need to go. >> before we do that we want to mention payload. -- the water treatment system there has failed. they are asking residents not to use tap water. we know it was evacuated yesterday. upwards of 80 homes were there. they have been evacuated. this is in palo, one of the many sites people have been working diligently. trying to protect part of that

use any water at this time. they are sandbagging at the community center. we will keep you up-to-date. now we will get into our recap. >> 3 send making locations. the old kmart location. hawkeye downs in ellis park

waverly.church in grace baptist church in waverly.

brandon, now let's head upriver to vinton where neigbhors are scrambling to prepare for their crest. cbs 2 news reporter connor morgan is there this morning. connor, what are you seeing? thanks brandon, now let's head upriver to vinton where neigbhors are scrambling to prepare for their crest. cbs 2 news reporter connor morgan is there this morning. connor, what are you seeing?