Greetings from soggy Cedar Rapids, Iowa! First, I am relieved to say that I am personally safe and sound and up high away from the floodwaters. It has been an unbelievable experience here in Iowa this year! Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagine how far the flood waters would have reached in our city. For the most part, our entire downtown was flooded. Many businesses and homes sustained severe damage. The waters are still receding so the total shock is yet to come.
One of the saddest is the flooding of the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library. I haven't heard whether or not they had time to save any of the many many treasured artifacts, including the vast folk costume collection. There were many pieces of wonderful lace in the collection too. Coincidentally, this weekend was our annual lace retreat here in town for our guild members. In spite of all the flooded roads, our members from Dubuque and Clinton (on the Mississippi) and nearby towns of Amana and Marengo (also flooded) were able to attend. So far as we know, all of our members are okay. However I haven't heard from a couple down in Iowa City which has also sustained severe flooding. We did receive word from another member that Doris Southard, who lives upstream in Cedar Falls, was evacuated safely from her home. Fortunately the levies in Cedar Falls were high enough and the downtown was saved. I would imagine that Doris' home is also okay. Perhaps if she is home again she will give us an update. Unfortunately our only needlework shop, which was 10 blocks from the river, was also flooded. I realized yesterday that I had an ethafoam pillow with a bookmark pricking on display there. That is hopefully the only lacemaking loss in town. Trust me, I have more pillows safely at home! Our guild is looking forward to attending the IOLI convention in neighboring Illinois. We anticipate receiving our charter too! I'm also attending the Arachne lunch. Thanks for thinking about us!! I hope other lacemakers across the rain soaked midwest and firey west are safe and well too. Anita Hansen Cedar Rapids, Iowa _________________________________________________________________ Now you can invite friends from Facebook and other groups to join you on Windows Live™ Messenger. Add now. https://www.invite2messenger.net/im/?source=TXT_EML_WLH_AddNow_Now - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
