Photos: Families, Volunteers, Community Come Together as Floodwater Creeps In

Nearly five years exactly from when a so-called "500-year flood" wreaked havoc on several parts of eastern Iowa, residents in Iowa City fear the days ahead will bring the remake of that movie. 

"Probably the same," Mimi Ozeroff said of how she expects this flood to compare to 2008. 

Ozeroff lives on Normandy Drive in a low-lying neighborhood known as "mosquito flats." The street is already covered in water and closed to traffic.

In 2008, her home was destroyed by the flood that covered the neighborhood in six feet of water. She was displaced for three months, she said. 

Since then, she and her husband moved across the street - closer to the river but in a home that sits a bit higher.

Residents such as the Ozerhoffs say if they learned something, it's to be better prepared. For example, in 2008 neighbors spent critical hours before the flood engulfed their home building sandbag walls, which proved ineffective. 

"We went through it before, so we know better," she said, as she and her family members loaded a moving truck in their driveway. 

She and her next door neighbor have kept pretty good spirits. Mimi said she is "going with the flow." A group of young men in their early 20s are renting the place next door. They've moved all of their belongings to the top floor in a house that's been elevated 12 feet since 2008. 

They spent the morning on Friday fishing in the Iowa River, which now makes up much of their backyard. They plan to stay unless evacuation becomes mandatory. 

"We have our go bags packed," said Alex Geoly, 21.

Others like Bruce Crowther, who lives in Cedar Rapids but isn't in danger of flooding, wanted to pitch in and help. He and 11 other volunteers from Pearson Inc. in Iowa City connected with the United Way, who put them to work building a sandbag wall around an apartment complex on North Riverside Drive that was 3.5 feet underwater in 2008. 

"We are here to help," Crowther said in between shoveling dirt into a sandbag. "We aren't going to let that happen again."