The afternoon of the convention went fairly smoothly. As I mentioned yesterday, we heard the results of the National Committee Man and Woman.

I appreciate the way that Stew Iverson kept things moving by inserting speeches at places where there were dead spots because of voting and such.

We heard the report of the Nominating Committee. As mentioned yesterday, names can be substituted by amending the report. And of course, someone made a motion to amend the report. It took over 30 minutes, but the amendment was approved and a name was substituted for another. 22 at-large delegates plus 22 alternates to attend the National Convention, and two more electors for the Presidential Election if McCain takes Iowa.

Kim Schmett spoke in the afternoon. …

In case you’re new, I’m a delegate to the Iowa State Republican Convention this year. And it is today.

So far we’ve had an interesting day. I thought for sure we were in for a long haul after the extended time spent on the report from the Rules Committee. One of the rules basically said that we would not have nominations from the floor for at-large delegates to the National Convention. The fact is, there is a mechanism for the convention to change the names of the delegates by requesting amendments to the Nominating Committee report. But before that became clear to the convention, we had already a motion to delete the rule, which led to a voice vote that was not 100% clear, and …

I’ve got two sets of photos to share.  The first are photos from around Des Moines during the peak water levels, including the Raccoon River, Des Moines River, and some creeks.

The following photos were taken along the Des Moines River on Thursday, June 19.  The river level has receded quite a bit, and yet riverside walkways are still covered at least 10 feet (the night photos show the top of the wall along the walkway just breaking the surface of the water about 15 yards from the levee).  The Pedestrian Bridge is not yet opened, and has major debris jammed into it.

The railroad bridge, which in earlier photos had sand covering the tracks, is now open.

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*** This Post will remain as a sticky until midday Saturday June 21. ***

We decided to put a fresh post up. The prior running post should be just below. Useful flood-related links can be found in the sidebar.

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(3:30 PM) Mayor Cownie of Des Moines has just announced that based on assessments just completed a short while ago, at 6:00 PM today, they plan to discontinue the curfew and general evacuations in the flood plain, with the exception of the Birdland area. They will also at the same time re-open the downtown bridges that have been closed most of the week. He emphasized the importance of being careful, staying away from the levees, and just watching from home.

He also stated that the situation may change if weather, levee or other river conditions change.  The public should check regularly with the media for updates.…

Des Moines city officials have announced they will immediately evacuate parts of Des Moines that are in the “500 year” flood plain along both the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers.  The water levels are expected to crest along the Des Moines River Friday evening between 8:00 PM and Midnight, at or slightly below the top of the levee system.  The evacuation is voluntary and is being done as a precaution in case the water exceeds the levee capacity or in case of levee breaks.

This map depicts the affected areas.

Police are asking for residents and businesses to evacuate immediately.

Birdland (in the northern part of the city) has already been evacuated. 

** Update **

Police Chief Judy Bradshaw said major downtown employers will start

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*** This post will be updated and will be kept as a sticky at the top as major flooding events in Des Moines occur. ***

Downtown Des Moines is still contained, although other parts of the city have begun flooding more extensively as water from Saylorville Lake Reservoir has been filling the Des Moines River after the Emergency Spillway Dam was lowered last night.

Below is a live webcam of the river through downtown Des Moines (Sunday 6/15/2008: This image may now be pointing elsewhere in downtown Des Moines).

Update:

(1:00 PM) We’ve got about a foot of water on Court Avenue as water pressure on the storm sewer system has forced its way to the street. Manhole covers have popped off, but …

Got the high-speed running again, and we’re all very happy here!

I can’t say the same for everyone in town. We continue to have flooding throughout the state, and water levels are rising around Des Moines. The local AAA baseball park is at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, and city crews are placing sandbags around the facility (it was washed out pretty badly in 1993). Bottom line is, we’re in the middle of it right now, and we don’t know how it’s going to come out. Officials are confident that levees and flood walls built after 1993 will help provide better protection through this event.

Story City, Mason City and other points around the state are already under water to …

If you don’t see any other posts for a day or two, it’s just that our internet access is down. We had some kind of outage that should be repaired sometime Monday, but it might be Tuesday before you see anything substantive. Sorry about that. (had to use a public wifi to upload this post)

Probably the result of the storms that rolled through Iowa this weekend. We were actually out of town (in Omaha) most of the weekend, so we missed the stuff that hit Des Moines. However, we still ended up in the basement in Omaha Sunday morning when a tornado hit Omaha.

Quite a bit of flooding around the state. Some areas (including Des Moines) are expecting river crests close to 1993 …

As unbelievable as it may seem, yet another US city just can’t seem to get it.

First Berkeley, CA, tries to block additional federal funding for a Marine Recruiting Center with text that said the Marines were “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” (a stance the Mayor of that left-handed city has since backed down on).

Now, lovely Toledo Ohio won’t permit the urban exercises planned by a company of Marines based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in downtown Toledo.

The Toledo Police were aware of the plans, but evidently Mayor Finkbeiner didn’t find out until the last minute. They’ve been conducting these exercises in Toledo since 2004 (granted, the last time was May 2006). Still, how in the world can the mayor be surprised? Better yet, the …