Public Radio East serves Eastern North Carolina by providing news, fine arts, and informational programming that challenges, stimulates, educates, and entertains an intellectually curious audience.

© 2026 Public Radio East

Public Radio East
800 College Court
New Bern, NC 28562

EIN 56-1802728
Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 89.9 W210CF Greenville
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

High Waters Hamper Flood Recovery Efforts

NPR | By Martin Kaste
Published June 17, 2008 at 4:00 PM EDT
Locals in Columbus Junction, Iowa, have named their flooded downtown along the Iowa River, "Lake C.J." The grocery store, day care center and a doctor's office are all underwater.
Martin Kaste, NPR /
Locals in Columbus Junction, Iowa, have named their flooded downtown along the Iowa River, "Lake C.J." The grocery store, day care center and a doctor's office are all underwater.

Parts of Iowa are still underwater after days of heavy flooding. That means roads are closed and bridges are washed out, making simple transportation more difficult.

In some parts of the state, it seems almost every bridge is blocked by a National Guard Humvee. County roads are clogged with dump trucks full of sand destined for the levees.

The trucks are helping to shore up levees. The National Guard and volunteers have been working for days to build up a few feet of extra height, but the water is still seeping through.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Martin Kaste
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
See stories by Martin Kaste