The Cedar River has reached record levels in the city. I am working with the Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial / City Hall maintenance department for the summer and got some photos of the flooding today downtown. Several streets around the river and near downtown were under water today with more expected by tomorrow. As of this evening all downtown bridges were closed, leaving Interstate 380 as the only river crossing in the city.
A number of bus routes had to be rerouted in response to street and bridge closures today. From what I heard there were no official detour routes and drivers were simply going where ever to try to maintain service. Towards the afternoon, west side routes had to use I-380 to cross the Cedar River to the GTC as 1st Avenue West was underwater due to the storm sewer backing up. It has been announced that transit service will be suspended through at least Saturday. Some buses will be used to assist transporting volunteers and evacuees.