Latest from Cedar Rapids

I think the score of the ball game in Cedar Rapids last night was the last thing on anyone's mind.

Kernels return to see devastation

From a personal standpoint, the flood has been more an annoyance than anything for Keith Johnson and Damon Mashore — especially compared to so many other people in town.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels manager and hitting coach were living in rooms at the Cooper's Mill Best Western hotel downtown near the Cedar River. Johnson and Mashore had rooms on the third floor of the hotel, which apparently have been untouched by floodwater.

They've had to move: Johnson is living with Kernels General Manager Jack Roeder and Mashore has taken up temporary residence at Memorial Stadium. They still can't get into the Cooper's Mill to gather their belongings, but those belongings are believed to be safe.

Plus, there have been some players out in the community.

"I was downtown a little bit today, and what I saw was unbelievable," said Kernels relief pitcher Jordon Towns. "It's hard to imagine."

Towns and teammate Cephas Howard visited the Viola Gibson Elementary School shelter for displaced residents Thursday.

"It was a good experience going around and talking to the people," Towns said. "It was kind of hard to find things to say to them after something like that. But most of them actually came up to us and started talking. Kind of getting things off their minds."

Ballpark provides special kind of shelter

Stretch limousines in the parking lot of Veterans Memorial Stadium would have seemed way past ostentatious Thursday night until you saw who got out of them.

For most of the previous week, the same lot was used as a staging area for the National Guard. Several city maintenance vehicles are still stationed there. But this night, two long, white, sleek vehicles of comfort pulled up to the front gate of the ballpark, delivering 40 people displaced from their homes because of the flood.

"How else are you gonna bring 'em?" said gregarious American Red Cross Disaster Services worker Ira Goldman of Yonkers, N.Y.

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The Kernels sprang for two luxury boxes, food and game tickets for the 40 folks, young and old. Many had been living in the Geneva Tower subsidized housing complex downtown. Holly Becker, in her last week as principal at Wright Elementary School before retirement, called the Kernels to see if it could be done. The ballclub was more than agreeable.

There's grime and gloom everywhere you look in Cedar Rapids' flood plains. You have to go only a few blocks from the stadium to see enough devastation to last you for a long time. But there are good things going on around us, too.

The Rattlers will be in Cedar Rapids next week.