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Today I decided to drive over to Davenport, located in Iowa just across the Mississippi from me.

Upon arrival I started off walking down the road to find this:



I then climbed into this skybridge,


Normally thats a parking lot under there.

From there I could see these clearly marked pedestrian crossings:





and also some nice benches to sit in



I could also see how thoughtful the town was, telling people driving down the road where the detour was:


But if you wanted a hotdog, never fear! You could swim out to the stand:

You can see how the waters are up to the level of a flood in 69 and again in 75.

The bridge I'm on, apart from being made so people could get cool pictures, served to get people over this:



railroad, and into this:

Casino riverboat.

I can also see where they are building the dirt levee.



Lets go look at it!

Walking over I can see a massive pump (one of many)


Its pumping mass amounts of water over this dirt wall:


Ah ha, in the distance I can see where they are actually building it. Lets walk over. On the way I ran into this:



Building the levee is pretty easy. You dump dirt:


And then push it:





and then push it some more:


Until you get to the top!


Then you get some guys to pull some tarps on it:



And your levee is done!

And you just have to pump all the water over like so:



Post story commentary

My camera was set to expose just a bit to high, so some of the pictures are a bit washed out. More pictures here.

Comments and critiques welcomed

Great pictures. I didn't get a chance to go over there myself today. That area is normally very beautiful, especially at night with the lights from the bridge and river boat casinos. Too bad mother nature decided to take a shit all over it. That's the second time this year I believe.

Anyway, thanks for the pictures.

Zadius wrote:Great pictures. I didn't get a chance to go over there myself today. That area is normally very beautiful, especially at night with the lights from the bridge and river boat casinos. Too bad mother nature decided to take a shit all over it. That's the second time this year I believe.

Anyway, thanks for the pictures.

Thanks. Yea I remember it flooding earlier this year, and I think it was just as bad.

As for the flooding, thats what you get when you build a big park on the river front. Notice how the Illinois side rarely floods

And yea the bridge is really pretty at night. Heres one I took earlier this year when it was -9 without windchill out:


Click the picture to see even more

Darth Mall wrote:As for the flooding, thats what you get when you build a big park on the river front. Notice how the Illinois side rarely floods

It's all about the tourists, man. Guess which side the tourists prefer to look at as they ride by on a cruise boat, hmm? I'd say that's worth at least one flood per year.

Fantastic picture of the skybridge, by the way.

Pretty awesome pictures, cute commentary.

Thought of sending the skybridge pic over to AP or some of the news organisations?

Excellent and quite amusing pictures, some of it looks as though it's worth sending to any interested news organizations.
What did you use for the watermarking? Also, are you a native of just the area, or where you also directly affected by the flooding?

Thanks guys.

And Zadius? I'll take a non flooded school over tourists any time of the year

Ace Pace and DEATH, thanks for the suggestion. I sent an email to the AP general submission adress, neither of you would happen to have a more specific contact?

And DEATH, I go to school on the Illinois side, so not really affected by the flooding. And I used lightroom to add the watermark. It's in the export options.

I liked the picture of the dump truck. You didn't happen to catch a larger picture of it, did you? Showing more of the truck, or maybe just more of the trailer?

I have a professional interest in those, driving one and owning several, and all

But yeah, that's pretty much the standard technique, you dump, the dozer pushes it to the top of the pile, whether you're dumping snow, top soil, or levee material.

Zadius wrote: It's all about the tourists, man. Guess which side the tourists prefer to look at as they ride by on a cruise boat, hmm? I'd say that's worth at least one flood per year.

Fantastic picture of the skybridge, by the way.

I always preferred looking at the Rock Island Arsenal, and the locks on the Illinois side.

That tall building in Moline where they demonstrate elevators is also more interesting than the Davenport and Bettendorf side of the river. Besides, are most of these people riding around in paddle wheel boats so they can gamble? I doubt they give a crap what it looks like outside.

Darth Mall wrote:As for the flooding, thats what you get when you build a big park on the river front. Notice how the Illinois side rarely floods

On the other hand, building a park in a floodplain can be more sensible than building commercial, industrial, or residential buildings.

In my area we have a county park called "Deep River". It floods EVERY spring - it's intended to do that. The idea is that if the water has somewhere to go it is far less likely to flood peoples' homes or farmers' fields. For a month or two high water shuts down about 2/3 of the park, then the water recedes and it's used for recreation the other 10 months of the year. No property damage because there are no buildings there to flood.

Likewise, rehabbing a flooded park is usually MUCH cheaper and less labor than rebuilding homes and businesses. Of course, at a certain point you just don't have a big enough park.

Excellent pictures. It really conveys the sense of water overtaking things.

And an update

I decided to bike down to Iowa. TO do this I had to cross the Government Bridge, which crosses over the locks and the Dam on the Mississippi. You can see here how high the water is that it is actually covering the locks.


Apparently mere minutes before I crossed over a congressman went and placed this flag on the levee. That pipe was at least a foot out of the water last time I was down here.



They also added the coating of sandbags to the levee. Along with them, they installed a few more pumps to pump water out of the storm drains:




Right on the new river front there is also a pawnshop. Talking to the owner there was ankle deep water in there before they pumped out the water. Not the best of grand openings:

And we can see the power of Ron Paul holds back the water of the river:

A bit further along the levee’s you can see where they decided to let this parking lot fill with water instead of emptying it out:



And right by that I found the perfect place to sit and soak my feet:



Continuing on to the Skybridge, I walked past this building whose basement flooded and has had water being constantly pumped out since last Friday:



Now on the skybridge, I can see the new entry method for the casino, a wooden walkway. Talking to the security guard I discovered that there are stacks of pallets at least 6 high underneath.


Those brave enough to visit the casino, never fear, the exit is clearly marked out for you:


I can also see how much the water has risen by looking at the hot dog stand:



Here’s a view of the entire skybridge over the water.


Remember that fire hydrant from before? I found it again:

And I found those detour signs aswell:

I then found some little ducklings that didn’t have their mother with them. Fortunately they were kind enough to pose for the camera:



On my way back, just before running out of batteries, I managed to find my fist submerged car:

And then to cap it off, a very helpful sign telling me there were stoplights ahead:


Supposedly the water crested on Monday night (the day I took these pictures) so hopefully water levels are down
Comments/critiques are welcome, and the rest of the set can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwillmott/ ... 597811622/

Phantasee wrote:I liked the picture of the dump truck. You didn't happen to catch a larger picture of it, did you? Showing more of the truck, or maybe just more of the trailer?

I have a professional interest in those, driving one and owning several, and all

But yeah, that's pretty much the standard technique, you dump, the dozer pushes it to the top of the pile, whether you're dumping snow, top soil, or levee material.

Sorry, I don't have any more pictures of the truck. But it was a International with a diesel.

And Broomstick, I know its supposed to flood, but they spend tons of money every year because of the flooding.

And thanks Zixinus!

Fantastic batch of photos. Very good composition, camerawork, IQ, and interesting subjects. I'll take some inspiration from it for urban shots (I suck at them myself).
What type of Camera did you use for it?

DEATH wrote:Fantastic batch of photos. Very good composition, camerawork, IQ, and interesting subjects. I'll take some inspiration from it for urban shots (I suck at them myself).
What type of Camera did you use for it?

Thanks.

I used my Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D. Great camera, but I'm looking to upgrade to the 450D at some point this year. There just aren't enough lenses to go with my poor minolta

Tommorow I'm off to the local air show, and I'm going to have my minolta and a dinky old D30. But I will have a 400 mm lense on the D30 while I only have a 300 on my Minolta.

I see you just got a 40D. What lenses have you got? I'm guessing more than just the sigma?