Flood Relief

Dear Rural Heritage friends (and after this many years together, you are friends)—Enclosed please find a check for $29, the cost of one year’s subscription. Please do not send me the subscription, however. Please use the money to help get back on your feet. I challenge other subscribers to make similar donations, because it was heart-wrenching to visit the Rural Heritage website in mid June and read the notice that the Mischka family’s house, office, and warehouse were all flooded there in Cedar Rapids, I owa, but that you’ll try to be back on schedule by the end of the week. I cannot imagine what you are going through, and I cannot imagine how to help you, other than to make this small donation to help you clean, refurbish, relocate—whatever it takes to keep this wonderful magazine coming to our house and business every other month. Please let it help to know you are in our thoughts and prayers. And if you need an extra pair of hands, you know how to reach us.

I saw this notice posted at ruralheritage.com: “We have experienced a devastating flood here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and our home, offices, and warehouse are flooded chest high. It will take us some time to regroup and rebuild, but we hope to be back up and semi-operational later this coming week.

“Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Sorry for the inconvenience?! It is not us who are inconvenienced. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your neighbors at this time.

Sorry to hear about your flood damage. Our thoughts are with you as you get back to business.

Thank you Lynne, Scott, Brandon and everyone else whose prayers and good wishes have come our way. Our place flooded on Friday, June 13. On Monday—with the help of dozens of friends, families and strangers—we ripped out all our carpets, tore out all the first floor drywall, and threw away enough household possessions to fill a 50-yard roll-off dumpster several times. Our church has been a tremendous source of support, and one of our fellow parishioners set us up with office space so we could resume operations. Here are some photos of our home, which before this weekend had never come remotely close to being flooded.

We have family in town with whom we can stay for the next 6 to 12 months while our home is repaired, and we were blessed that no one was hurt. Our river flood stage is 12'. At its highest the river crested in our area at about 34', breaking a record first set in 1857 and tied in 1993 of 20'. Like nearly everyone else in Cedar Rapids, we have no flood insurance and will be working hard to recover. — Joe