A victory in Charles City, 10 years after the 2008 flood

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Phyllis Meyer sat in Victory Park on Saturday and watched three bicyclists speed through.

A young couple talked quietly in the shade under one of the trees, and a few other people walked over the bridge, admiring the Cedar River below.

“It just makes you feel good, that people are using the park,” she said. “It’s just that kind of place. It’s peaceful, just a very pleasant spot.”

Exactly 10 years ago, that pleasant spot was her house.

When the flood of 2008 hit Charles City, Meyer and her husband, Victor, had lived in the French Colonial home for 25 years. The couple had moved to Charles City in 1952, and bought the home in the 1980s.

“It was a house that we had both admired for a long time, and when found out it was going to be for sale, we made arrangements to follow up,” Meyer said.

There was a view of the river from nearly every room in the home.

“The way the house was situated, you could see the river. You almost had a 180 degree view of the river,” she said. “That’s what you woke up to in the morning. It was a beautiful home, built for people who loved to entertain, so it was easy to entertain in.”

Meyer said that several family weddings, receptions and other events took place on that spot.

“There are a lot of family memories here,” she said.

The 500-year flood of the Cedar River in 2008 displaced more than 40,000 Iowans and caused millions of dollars in damages statewide.

The flooding hit Charles City first.

The river would eventually crest at 25.33 feet in Charles City by about noon on Monday, June 9, breaking the previous record set in 1999 by more than 2½ feet, according to the National Weather Service. Damage to public infrastructure reached $4.3 million. The flooding damaged around 250 homes in the city.

One of those homes was Meyer’s, and she missed it all. She was vacationing in Canada.

“I got a message from my family, and I called back,” she said. “This area had flooded before — we’d sandbagged at least twice before. So I was well aware of how the water could come up, but fortunately we never really got any in the house.”

At first, she couldn’t believe that the flooding was as bad as her family was telling her.

“I thought, ‘it can’t be that high.’ And they said, ‘no, Mom, it is,”” she said. “When it all dawned on me, I knew I had to come home.”

She said she had to make several calls and arrangements to get home. “It was an adventure getting back, but I got back.”

By the time she returned, the historic pedestrian suspension bridge near her home had collapsed, as raging floodwater washed over the deck and pulled down the supporting structure. Meyer said her son was there to watch it fall. The bridge had been lighted, and sparks were flying. Meyer’s house, meanwhile, had a proverbial river running through it.

In the weeks after the flood, as Meyer and her family were cleaning up, they decided to donate the property to the community.

“We had a good estimate as to what it would cost to bring it back to what it was,” she said.

Meyer learned that she would have had to replace some very expensive paneling — possibly an entire heating system, and much more.

“There were a great many things,” she said. “It was my decision, also in cooperation with my family, to donate this property.”

The property was to be made a park, and Meyer’s family retained naming rights.

“We decided this spot would be a very lovely park,” she said. “It feeds into the system of parks, the whole riverfront development and the bike trails.”

The family named the site Victory Park, and many in Charles City have come to believe it was named after Meyer’s late husband, Victor. Meyer said that’s only partially true.

“My family came up with the name, and i’m thinking they thought a little bit about naming it after Victor,” she said. “Actually, at the time the bridge was dedicated, the mayor (former Charles City mayor Jim Erb) referred to the fact that this was a part of the ‘victory’ of the Cedar Valley, recovering after the flood. So that was an excellent combination.”

Victor was a banker in town, and passed away years before the flood. Phyllis and Victor had four children.

Now 10 years after the flood’s devastation, a new pedestrian bridge stands in place of the historic one. The sculpture at Victory Park, called “Revival,” by artist David Williamson, is made from remnants of the bridge. Meyer was at the dedication ceremony last July.

“It happened, but we went ahead. We got a new bridge,” said Meyer. “It took a long time for the park to get developed, for more reasons than one. But now we’re very pleased. Sometimes those things just take time.”

Meyer thinks about her old house, she said, but she’s quick to mention that there were others who were more devastated by the flooding than she was.

“I must admit I was among the very fortunate,” Meyer said. “I was able to buy another home, not everyone was that fortunate. I’m very happy with this gift to the city, you always want to give something back.”

She visits this spot often, she said — this place that was once her home — and she reflects as she watches the river.

“The water that’s here today isn’t the water that’s here tomorrow,” she said. “You can sit and watch the river, and something on the river can catch your attention for a moment — maybe it’s something floating, maybe it’s just a splash — but then it’s gone. It changes. That’s the thing about the river, you realize it flows.”