Residents evacuate Cedar Rapids homes ahead of flooding

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Residents are leaving low-lying areas of Cedar Rapids, adhering to a request by the authorities to clear out by 8 p.m. Sunday due to the risk of flooding from the rising Cedar River.

City workers and volunteers have been working for days to build a temporary system of levees that might be able to contain the floodwaters.

Kim Hutchins, whose home in Palo is about 10 miles upstream from Cedar Rapids, told the Des Moines Register that she spent Saturday packing up her kitchen while some friends unhooked her furnace in the basement and moved it up to the garage.

[...] he said crews were still pumping at the wastewater treatment plant's lift station and that the town's 870 residents should still refrain from taking showers or using the toilet.