Here we go again?

Though winter doesn't officially start until Monday, we're already in a familiar pattern of ice and snow in Iowa. It seems eerily familiar to last winter, which merely resulted in devastating flooding in June. Maybe Mother Nature doesn't like Iowa. Or maybe this is what global warming -- which I prefer to call climate change -- looks like.

5-10 inches of snow, sleet and ice forecast

A major winter storm is forecast to bring 5 to 10 inches of snow, ice accumulation of up to four tenths of an inch and around three inches of sleet.

The National Weather Service will put a winter storm warning into effect from noon Thursday until noon Friday for a good portion of Eastern Iowa, including Linn and Johnson counties.

A mixture of freezing rain and sleet will begin between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Ice accumulations ranging from a trace to one tenth of an inch are expected by the evening commute.

The weather service says an additional ice accumulations of one half inch are expected Thursday night. There is a chance for thunder freezing rain which may result in locally high ice amounts.

The ice is expected to briefly change over to all rain by late Thursday night as temperatures rise to near freezing. It is predicted to change back to freezing rain and eventually snow by the Friday morning commute.

According to the weather service, the probability of extended power failures is high with this storm. Winds are expected to remain light Thursday but likely to increase to 10 to 20 miles per hour for a time on Friday.

The weather service says the storm will make travel dangerous or impossible. The ice accumulations and winds can lead to falling tree branches and snapped power lines.

In Cedar Rapids, the weather services predicts about one inch of snow accumulation during the day Thursday and an additional seven inches of snow and sleet accumulation by Thursday night.More winter storms headed for Eastern Iowa
Roads were bad Tuesday but conditions are expected to worsen as two more winter storms are set to head through Eastern Iowa this week.

"Definitely stay tuned to the weather forecasts and be prepared for snow and ice, probably both," said Andy Ervin, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport. "The next one Thursday has the potential to be an ice storm."

Between 2 and 4 inches of snow fell across the area Tuesday, creating slick roads and reduced visibility that contributed to dozens of crashes, including a nine-vehicle collision that closed Interstate 80 near West Branch for several hours.

Out of 34 wrecks reported by 4 p.m. Tuesday in Cedar Rapids, only one person was injured, police said.

The personal injury crash happened just after 2 p.m. in front of Prairie High School, when a sport utility vehicle slid into the side of a city bus, police said. The SUVs driver, Richard Kearney, 46, 243 Mayden Ave. SW, reported an injury to his head and back pains. The city bus, driven by Leroy Nye, 52, was not carrying any students. Only three passengers were on board and none were injured. Kearney was taken to Mercy Medical Center for treatment.

Snow emergencies restricting on-street parking were declared in Mount Vernon, Lisbon, North Liberty, West Branch and Independence. The snow has also delayed or canceled some flights arriving and departing from The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.

Iowa is in the middle of an active weather pattern similar to the one the state saw last year, Ervin said. That one lasted three months. The next storm, expected to start Thursday afternoon and continue through Friday morning, is still developing, he said. Forecasters should know more about it by this morning, Ervin said.

Another snowstorm is predicted to begin Saturday night.

Area law enforcement agencies and weather forecasters have issued several warnings cautioning motorists to practice safe winter driving by slowing down, using their head lights, wearing their seat belts and leaving extra room between their car and the car in front of them.

"Road salt is not nearly as effective when temperatures are as cold as they are. It's going to be below freezing for a while, so the roads will be slippery," Ervin said.

Procrastination

Goodness I have lots to do. With school about to start, at home and at work, and football season on the horizon, I should be fired up and ready to go. But I'm not. Well, I'm fired up, but my readiness is questionable.

I don't mean to make excuses, but the flood changed everything. I wasn't even a victim, but we're all affected. These are desperate times. I take no solace in the misery of others, but I'm obviously not alone.

I don't remember most of my college professors, but one of the few that I do has had a rougher summer than most. Allegations of gropes for grades recently became public and the downward spiral began.

He's currently missing with a high powered rifle. His request for a handgun was denied by the sheriff, but apparently no permit is required for a long gun. Go figure.

God save us.

Livin' in the future

I smiled as the Bruce Springsteen song wailed when Barack Obama made his exit from today's town hall meeting at Coe College.

"Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet"

Indeed.

The local and regional flood recovery.
A reasonable energy policy that fully embraces environmental responsibility.
Affordable health care.
Investment in education and overhauling No Child Left Behind.
Rescinding Bush's irresponsible tax cuts for the rich.
Diplomacy before death.
Electing a Democrat.

"None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet"

Hometown Zero

Kurt Warner came home to Cedar Rapids today and took a tour of my city of ruins. He brought a pen, but forgot his checkbook. He signed autographs, posed for photos, handed out Cardinals t-shirts (no, not those Cardinals), and shook hands.

Whatta guy!

My favorite local sports writer -- and one of the smartest people I know -- let him off the hook, I thought, describing the visit as "an attempt to keep the effects of the flood in the public's consciousness."

Baloney! We're not even a month out.

“I think there’s always the initial push by people to help out, whether it be corporations or individuals,” Warner said. “But it becomes out of sight, out of mind.

You forget about how long it’s going to take these families or this community to rebuild. Once it’s not a headline or a breaking story it gets pushed in the background.”

Does Warner come from the future or something? Perhaps he returned sooner than planned. I'm baffled.

Talk about your hometown heroes!

I was going to post about the agony of enduring a baseball/softball-free evening, but this is a much better read from a much better writer about a much better man. And I don't mean Kurt Warner.

More than ever, Birdies That Care must soar

He's Zach Johnson, and he's still from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The question isn't whether the native son will help his hometown in efforts to recover from flood devastation, but how. He said things are afoot, using PGA Tour channels and his own means.

"My mind's on it every day," Johnson said Monday.

"We're brainstorming. We've got a lot of ideas right now that we're looking into as far as relief and setting up this and setting up that with a number of different people and organizations, the Tour, myself. The PGA Tour and its players and its executives are really brainstorming and putting some good things on paper, and hopefully we can get some relief funds going here shortly.

"And then also even specifically back in Cedar Rapids with some friends of mine, we're really trying to work on some things and put some good things together. It's still so premature as to all the specifics. There's a number of levels to it, and we're really just waiting to see where this money that we can potentially raise can go."

Johnson became Cedar Rapids' best-known former resident when he won the Masters in 2007. He sure didn't hide his roots at his press conference the day he became the Masters champion, telling the world, "I'm Zach Johnson and I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa."

We need more famous people from Cedar Rapids and Iowa to step up. There may be times charity isn't really charity when it's accompanied by a press release and photo opportunity. But there also are times when famous folks need to be examples worth following.


Hey, former Cedar Rapids high school student Ashton Kutcher, how about throwing the home state a little support? If you already have, tell the world. Granted, our story isn't as enduring or compelling or as massively miserable to the outside world as Katrina or Darfur. But are you one of us or not?

Yes, that's unfair to single out one person. Kutcher and his wife, Demi Moore, have done a lot to help Chrysalis, a Los Angeles-based organization that helps homeless men and women find jobs and homes. But he has a bully pulpit, and he and all famous native Iowans should use theirs to get assistance sent back home.

Johnson left Iowa several years ago for Florida. PGA Tour guys have to live where you can play golf in December. But you can't argue he hasn't remained one of us, and not just because he asks to be introduced as from Cedar Rapids at all his PGA Tour stops.

This is the fourth year of his Birdies That Care effort. The first three beneficiaries were Community Free Health Clinic, the Madge Phillips Center at Waypoint, and Tanager Place. All were wonderfully worthy. Total contributions from the effort founded by Johnson and his wife, Kim, in conjunction with AEGON, were around $350,000.

This year's recipient, chosen months before the flood, is Boys & Girls Club of Cedar Rapids. Man, does that fine organization need such help now after its building on Ellis Boulevard NW got clobbered by the Cedar River. Even the second-floor gym of the building took in water.

"It literally gutted the whole thing," said John Tursi, the club's executive director. "Tables, chairs, games, anything for the kids. It's unbelievable."

Over the weekend, huge piles of muddy junk were piled on the club's curb. All that stuff kids had fun with weeks ago was covered in grime and sludge. Pinball machines aren't supposed to be gray.

In the summer, the club serves 155 kids from ages 6 to 18. Seventy percent of those kids live at or below the poverty level.

"It's a safe, positive, fun, educational place for them to be," Tursi said. "It's not for intervention or treatment. It's the first line of primary prevention. If these kids didn't have a safe place to be, most would end up in gang activities or in trouble, and wouldn't do as well in school."

Many of those kids, especially those displaced from their homes because of the flood, need the Boys & Girls Club more than ever now. It has taken a summer residence at Roosevelt Middle School. After that, fingers are crossed that a return to its old home is possible.

"Our building is bricks, concrete and steel," Tursi said. "We have very little drywall. We're going to decontaminate this building.

"To lose this building would be tough. We would like to stay here. That is the goal. But no matter what, we will be in this neighborhood. We're not leaving the west side."

The club needs basketballs and board games, all kinds of recreational materials. What it really needs most, of course, is cash.

"Exactly," Johnson said, "and they needed that before this happened. It's a terrible thing. I guess we chose the right facility for this year as far as helping out people. But I know they've been devastated, just completely demolished, if you will."

The defining story of this tragedy will be whether the "haves" adequately help the "have-nots." One "have" who lives more than a thousand miles away says he's on board. If he succeeds in getting some of his "have" friends in golf to help out, that would be big.

"My heart goes out, my family's heart goes out, and our prayers are certainly with Cedar Rapids and certainly all the other communities that have been affected and will be affected by this water," Johnson said.

"I know what Iowans are like, and they're going to grab hands and work hard and make it for the better because that's what we're about and what the community is about. ... I've always said I'm from Cedar Rapids. You can't take that away from me."

OK, which one of you connected celebrities from Iowa is next?