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Server Time:
2024-05-02 19:27:35
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 mrvander
   
Location: Cedar Rapids/Spirit Lake, IA
Gender: Male
Brick by Brick
 |  | Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
< on 5/10/2009 3:54 AM >
|  | | | Hi everyone, long time explorer, but first time poster.
As a lot of people in the midwest would recognize, areas in Iowa, Illinois, and other states were heavily damaged this previous summer (of 2008) by a series of floods in June. I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for part of the year, and was there when the river flooded large sections of the city. What's the point of all this?
Well, there's hundreds, maybe even thousands of abandoned or partially-abandoned properties spread out along the 500 year flood plain that were too heavily damaged for renovation, or are moving along slowly in the process of renovation. Everything from bars to churches to entire blocks of homes. Brown-belt industrial areas like the old Sinclair meatpacking plant now sit empty and partially destroyed. There are blocks of homes that are vacant, empty underground parking garages, overgrown and partially washed out bridges, and lots of areas to look at. Cedar Rapid's historic Czech Village was particularly hard hit; many of the surrounding neighborhoods are essentially empty.
So, Cedar Rapids right now is a fantastic place for exploration.
I guess I have to warn people, many properties are condemned or are very unsafe. Having sandbagged and helplessly watch the city go under, I feel a great deal of solidarity with the people of Cedar Rapids, and have made it a personal policy never to enter abandoned flood homes out of respect. I recognize the difficulty of matching respect for property with harmless exploration, and I hope anyone who decides to make the trip to CR to see everything can find a balance that suits them.
I'd encourage people to look into the Sinclair plant, which as of now is the sole CR record in the database. Since I'm not yet a full time member, I've been working with a moderator to get the record for the Sinclair plant updated and reworked post-flood, and I encourage everyone to visit it, it's a cool place.
Are there any other Cedar Rapids residents around that might want to do some UE next fall when I go back after a summer away in NW Iowa?
Go Cubs go! Hey Chicago what do you say... |
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Curious_George
  
Location: Cambridge
Gender: Male
Straight outta New Bedlam
| | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 1 on 5/10/2009 5:01 AM >
| | | | I was there about a week after the flood hit for a day and it was insane. Hard to get into anything but still amazing.
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Glass
  
Location: Chicago
as one does
| |  | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 2 on 5/10/2009 2:52 PM >
| | | | I drove through CR two weeks ago and saw a few possible locations... I expect to be back this summer for a couple days, if you wish to meet up and do some of these.
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Clockwork
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
I WILL KILL THIS MONKEY! I'M CRAZY!
| |  | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 3 on 5/11/2009 2:07 AM >
| | | | I go through CR once in a while. There are a LOT of vacant properties, sure enough, but they're pretty well locked up and I wouldn't exactly classify them as "abandoned." Some of the places that are abandoned are alright. Sinclair is cool, and it's amusing that the UE DB entry has it listed as already demolished. Sinclair is kinda cool, but a lot of it is just really nasty and smells like decaying dead stuff (really strong and nasty, not easily ignored). There's a LOT of abandoned houses too, but out of respect it's better not to enter them.
If you wanna check things out in CR, let me know. I live nearby in Dubuque and can drop down that way any time.
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Radio2600
 
Location: On the Road to Wellville
HY KAK TO TAK
| | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 4 on 5/11/2009 3:21 AM >
| | | | and for you mental hospital mavens...
There's a PARTIALLY abandoned (but still mostly in use) Kirkbride about 45 minutes North of Cedar Rapids.
I'm not quite sure where Sinclair is, it wouldn't be hard to find I guess.
I tried to take an unauthorized tour of the Czech museum after the flood, but they had that place locked down faster than you could say Golem.
In order to use your head, you have to go out of your mind. |
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Clockwork
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
I WILL KILL THIS MONKEY! I'M CRAZY!
| | | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 5 on 5/11/2009 6:04 AM >
| | | | I assume you're talking about Independence. It's still pretty active.
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Radio2600
Location: On the Road to Wellville
HY KAK TO TAK
| | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 6 on 5/11/2009 6:08 PM >
| | | | Posted by Clockwork
I assume you're talking about Independence. It's still pretty active.
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Yes, there are a few abandoned buildings on the property, but it's still an active institution which is why I said:
"There's a PARTIALLY abandoned (but still mostly in use) Kirkbride"
You can get legit tours of the active buildings, but you have to go on a weekday.
In order to use your head, you have to go out of your mind. |
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mrvander
Location: Cedar Rapids/Spirit Lake, IA
Gender: Male
Brick by Brick
| | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 7 on 5/11/2009 8:43 PM >
| | | | Well we're just going to have to wait for it to be TOTALLY abandoned. I've never actually heard of that- thanks for the heads up. One thing I want to look into in CR is Westdale Mall, I know it was all but empty before the flood, though now some businesses displaced by the flood have moved in. If they end up moving out I imagine it'll be pretty much empty again.
I also know the city of CR has steam tunnels, but I know next to nothing about them and haven't been able to find information on them. There's a big Alliant steam plant and steam pipes running all over the place in some areas, so I bet the tunnels are extensive.
Go Cubs go! Hey Chicago what do you say... |
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sirkit
Gender: Male
| | Re: Iowa, and a great city for UE: Cedar Rapids
<Reply # 8 on 6/6/2009 4:44 AM >
| | | | Steam Tunnels, Eh? I used to live in Kansas City MO. Where a Trigen steam plant is housed. I know a thing or two about steam plant fed tunnels. Or at least KC's.
1. MAN, ARE THEY EASY TO FIND?! Just wait for a good cold night and drive around a 10 block radius of the steam plant. Steam piping is difficult to maintain and under pressure and is therefore always leaking. So keep an eye out on man hole covers, storm drains, and any other various openings in the street/sidewalk/grass. Your bound to see it billowing out somewhere.
2. Their a great way to die!! If you explore one of these things, I would HIGHLY advise bringing a temperature probe and an infrared thermometer. If CR's tunnels are anything like Trigen's, then they are a catacomb of huge leaky pipes that may as well be bare.
Here's my experience: We were trying to find a POE into one of these things, so we followed the steam plumes, looking into the source of each. None were vert visible. Until we found an access hatch.
It was a huge grate on a concrete pad and a grass embankment next to a highway down town. As we aproached it, the unmistakable damp sulfuric odor of steam smell became stronger and stronger. We shined our flashlights down into the chamber. It was about 20-30 ft deep or better. and axpanded into a huge room with a door on one side. I tried to look down from directly above the hatch for a better look. But, to my dismay, the air directly above it was hotter than the blast of air when you open a 400* oven.
So working in 2 and a half second glances, we say a enourmous pipe with blue insulation around it running through the room, with several smaller pipes, each with manual and automatic valves on them. Below them the floor had pools of water that condensed from the steam.
Realizing that the air in there was easily hot enough to quikly kill us, we abandoned the idea. The most worry some part was that door. Opening it from the other side would surely result in serious burns or scalds.
It was cool though... the area resembled something out of silent hill. We later just went to the operational trigen plant and found a huge bay door open. A couple of us took 2 steps in just to get a glimpse of the mammoth boilers, and myriad of piping and machinery, bells, and clanking noises. Though one of us ventered in a bit further down a ladder. I'll have to find some picture for the forum for ya's.
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