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« Dyersville Teen Named State’s Top Yodeler

Local Katrina survivors reflect five years later

Patrick Hogan/SourceMedia Group News, 27 August 2010, 1 comment
Categories: human interest
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

Update at 6:14 p.m. by Christopher Pratt, edited number of people killed by storm.

Barb Arceneaux

By Patrick Hogan
Christopher Pratt
The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — One evening, when Barb Arceneaux was supposed to be on stage August 27,
2005, the Slidell, La., production of the play “Sylvia” she was in had to postpone the performance due
to bad weather.

“We talked about possibly trying again the next day,” Arceneaux said. “The previous year, everyone
evacuated for Hurricane Ivan and it turned out to be nothing.”

The next day, Hurricane Katrina began to devastate the region.

Arceneaux, 55, is one of several people affected by the storm who ended up in the Cedar Rapids area
following the chaos and still is here on the hurricane’s fifth anniversary.

Although she was born and raised in New Orleans, Arcneaux had lived in Marion since 1983. She
moved back to Louisiana in June 2005 to help care for her mother, who recently was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s Syndrome.

“I had lived in Iowa for 20 years. I hadn’t planned to move back,” she said.

Arceneaux waited out the hurricane with her parents, but when she left the city to check on her sisters
in Shreveport and was told she couldn’t return for another six to eight weeks, she decided to head
back to Iowa, where she returned to her previous employers, Kirkwood Community College.

“I just ended up staying,” she said. “I already had a son in college here. I had friends here. I was able
to get a full-time position pretty easily. I made out alot better than other people.”

Jeri Halperin, 35, lived in New Orleans for six years before the category 5 storm swept through the
city. She was there that day, but left for higher ground at some point before the levee system breached
on Aug. 30.

Halperin and her husband, Ben, ended up with family in Illinois. Eventually, they decided to move to
Iowa, and in January 2008 opened a restaurant called Augusta, 101 S. Augusta St., Oxford. The menu
showcases New Orleans style dishes, and they have made friends in the town.

Halperin said surviving the storm that killed more than a thousand people and displaced hundreds of
thousands like her, has made her stronger during times of adversity. Some water damage to the
couple’s home recently brought forth some of the emotions she felt during Katrina.

“Those feelings come up again,” she said.

Arceneaux experienced similar emotions during the June 2008 flood of downtown Cedar Rapids.
Even though her home in Marion was safe, it was hard to watch Theatre Cedar Rapids, where she
frequently volunteers, end up underwater.

“I couldn’t go down there,” Arceneaux said. “It was too upsetting, too much like Katrina.”

Arceneaux still visits her family in New Orleans twice a year, and said reconstruction is coming along
quickly, although some vacant neighborhoods remain. Since her mother died in December 2005, she
has no plans to move away from Eastern Iowa again.

Looking forward, Halperin said the couple hopes to open another restaurant. Business is good, but she
misses her old city. In between waiting on customers she quoted a New Orleans Times-Picayune
writer, Chris Rose,

“‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas; but what happens in New Orleans stays in your heart.’”

Comments: (319) 398-8273; patrick.hogan@gazcomm.com, (319) 398-8393; chris.pratt@kcrg.com

 UI Hospitals checking into recall of hip implants »

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One Response, Leave a Reply

1.
Live Cams
02 September 2010, 10:11 am

Unless FEMA has improved it response considerably since 2008, 72 hours food and water will
mean you are likely to go without for another 24 to 48 hours. On day 5 after Ike, Chertoff and
the Red Cross still couldn’t figure out how to pass out wate

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Learning to swim later in life (http://www.easterniowasportsandrec.com

/2010/08/21/learning-to-swim-later-in-life/)
August 21st, 2010 | Published in Featured (http://www.easterniowasportsandrec.com/category/featured/)

CORALVILLE — A few nights a week this summer, a biochemist set aside his eyeglasses and lab wear for a
swimsuit and a kickboard. Shuvendu Das was learning to swim.

Many people learn to swim as children, but there is a growing demand for the adult classes, says Coralville
Aquatics Supervisor Faron Van Nostrand.

Adults don swimsuits and goggles for varying reasons. For some it’s at a doctor’s suggestion. Physicians
often recommend swimming as a low-impact exercise.

Others want to swim with their kids or overcome their own fear of the water.

According to a study (http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&itemid=2854&mid=8712) for

USA Swimming by researchers at The University of Memphis 65 percent of parents of at-risk swimmers are
themselves at-risk swimmers. On the other hand, only 19 percent of parents of non-at-risk swimmers are
themselves at-risk swimmers.

The same study found that a quarter of parents are unable to swim and nearly another quarter, 23.7 percent
can swim a little, but are not comfortable in the water.

That’s why Das signed up.

“I know that if I get down into the water, up to 5 feet, I will not die,” says Das , a University of Iowa researcher
from Coralville.

It used to be that he would go to the beach and only submerge himself waist-deep in the water.

Not any more.

After weeks of lessons, he’s no longer afraid of the water.

He and about 10 other students enrolled in two beginner-level swim classes offered this summer by Coralville
Parks and Recreation, 1508 Eighth St.

Several drowning cases this summer prove that knowing how to swim is important, says instructor Allison
Davis, 18, of North Liberty.

” Swimming is something everyone should learn how to do,” she says.

The group meets for 30 minutes near a sign reading “adults only” to learn new strokes.

Davis enjoys teaching adults, she says. They can communicate their learning styles and goals better than
kids.

Rob Butcher, executive director of United States Masters Swimming (http://www.usms.org/) , a national
organization of more than 50,000 adult swimmers, says it doesn’t take long to see benefits once a person
begins to swim.

“It’s undeniably one of the safest and healthiest forms of exercise,” he says.
There are 12 masters clubs in Iowa, according to the Iowa Masters Swimming Web page. About 500,000
adults swim a few times each week for exercise in the United States, Butcher says.

Van Nostrand, with the Coralville Recreation Center (http://www.coralville.org/index.aspx?nid=76) , says he

expects to see the demand for adult swim lessons stay steady. In addition to the two beginner courses, there
also are intermediate ones. In all, around 20 adults took classes this summer.

Of course, kids are learning to swim at the recreation center as well. Das ‘ son, Aaron Das , 5, is one of them.

He says he’s proud of his father for learning how to swim.

(The Gazette published this story on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010)

(http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/2010/08/21/learning-to-swim-later-in-life/adult_swim/)

Shuvendu Das, of Coralville, practices back floating while he is helped by his adult swim class
instructor, Allison Davis, at the Coralville Recreation Center in Coralville on Thursday, July 15,
2010. Das wanted to learn how to swim and so he goes to the class which is held on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. (Julie Koehn/SourceMedia Group News)

(http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=wp-4c487c0d25077c3a)

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/05/nights-light-midnight-hoops-brightens-late-hours-for-neighborhood-
teens/)

August 5th, 2010 | Published in Basketball (http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/category/basketball/) , Featured

(http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/category/featured/)
(http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/2010/08/05/nights-light-midnight-hoops-brightens-
late-hours-for-neighborhood-teens/cameron-beets-morris-williams/)

Cameron Beets (right) tries to take a shot around Morris Williams during their Midnight Hoops
game at Jane Boyd Community Center on Friday, July 16, 2010, in Cedar Rapids. (Liz
Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Black Team tips off against the Blue Team. At 10 p.m., it’s the second and final game
of the night.

The gym is swelteringly hot, but Alleigha Green plays it cool as she dribbles the perimeter.

She says she has a tendency to showboat, but her teammates on the Black Team, including Dacien Pledge,
16, of Cedar Rapids, keep feeding her the rock.

Every Friday between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., Pledge, Green and about 40 other teens from the Wellington
Heights and Moundview neighborhoods get together at the Jane Boyd Community House gym, 943, 14th Ave.
SE, for Midnight Hoops

Organizers Jason Pershing and Trent Gaines, who have known each other since their own boyhoods playing
basketball at Jane Boyd — say the mission of the league is to teach neighborhood kids teamwork and the
value of friendly competition as well as offer an alternative to pressure from peers to get involved in criminal
activity.

“You can have friends and hang out with your friends and do positive things,” says Pershing, who works for
Upward Bound at Coe College and is also a basketball coach at Washington High School.

That’s why Pledge is there.

“It teaches me how to, like, how to work with others,” he says.

In addition to playing basketball , the teens will hear motivational speakers throughout the six-week program,
which ends Aug. 13. Teens ages 14 through 18 who live in the two neighborhoods are the target group for this
program. However, many of the players are older and from other parts of the city.

The league got started with a $4,753 grant from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation. The
Wellington Heights neighborhood Association also helped bring in the program.
“The kids in the neighborhood deserve this,” says Terry Bilsland, the group’s president.

Lessons learned playing basketball transfer into the real world, says Green, 15, a Jefferson High School
sophomore.

“It teaches me to be disciplined in everything I do, and it teaches me a lot about teamwork. And some things
you can’t do on your own,” she says.

Green says her mom wouldn’t allow her to cause mischief on the streets. But this league may stop others from
giving into temptations, she says.

“After this, you’re already tired, so most likely all you’re going to do is go home and crash,” Green says.

That’s the idea, Pershing says. They wanted to bring teens together.

(http://easterniowasportsandrec.com
/2010/08/05/nights-
light-midnight-hoops-
brightens-late-hours-
for-neighborhood-
teens/jason-pershing/)

Jason Pershing, 30, of

Cedar Rapids, helps
organize Midnight
Hoops.

“The teamwork aspect: playing with guys you normally wouldn’t play with, maybe you don’t even know them,”
he says.

One recent Friday night, it’s apparent all the teens in the gym shared at least one thing — a love for the game.

Sweat drips onto the gym floor. Pledge slashes down the lane.

A table’s been set up in front of the bleachers. Pershing tallies rebounds, and Gaines ticks at the scoreboard.

Pershing and Gaines compare Pledge’s style to a pro player, “He’s kind of like Antawn Jamison,” Gaines says.

“It’s kind of classy, a little unorthodox,” Pershing says.

Only a few seconds remain on the clock. Gaines shouts from the sidelines.
“Finish strong, Blue! Keep playing, Blue!”

(http://easterniowasportsandrec.com
/2010/08/05/nights-
light-midnight-hoops-
brightens-late-hours-
for-neighborhood-
teens/trent-gaines/)

Trent Gaines, 30, of

Cedar Rapids, helps
organize Midnight
Hoops.

When the final buzzer sounds the players walk around shaking hands at center court. Gaines and Pershing
cram extra jerseys in a cardboard box. Play is over for the night and the gym door is locked up.

A bright light that had been beaming from the gym into the dark night vanishes, but it’ll be back on next week.
(http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/2010/08/05/nights-light-midnight-hoops-brightens-
late-hours-for-neighborhood-teens/sam-odonnell-mike-hodges-tyrone-perkins/)

Sam O'Donnell takes a shot over other players in their Midnight Hoops game at Jane Boyd
Community Center on Friday, July 16, 2010, in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group
News)

(http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=wp-4c487c0d25077c3a)

You might also be interested in:

Jane Boyd midnight basketball (http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/2010/07/02/jane-boyd-midnight-

basketball/) (0)
Jane Boyd golf tournament information (http://easterniowasportsandrec.com/2010/07/02/jane-
boyd-golf-tournament-information/) (0)

Comments are closed.

© 2010 Eastern Iowa Sports and Rec

David Jourdan, author of the new book, “The Deep Sea Quest for Amelia Earhart” spoke to a crowd
of about 200 people at Ballantyne Auditorium, Kirkwood Community College.

Jourdan, Founder and President of Nauticos, led trips in 2002 and 2006 to look for Earhart’s downed
Lockheed Electra plane. On Saturday he flashed a laser point at slides and described how crews used
sonar to search the ocean floor for Earhart.

He said some parts of the Pacific Ocean are still unmapped. “There’s not much going on in that part of
the world,” he said.

Over the years the Naval Academy graduate has teamed up with engineers and analysts from
Rockwell Collins. The work Nauticos is doing is narrowing the search for Earhart, as well as mapping
unfamiliar parts of the ocean floor.

When Earhart’s plane vanished near Howland Island in 1937 there was no wreckage, oil slick, or
floating debris.

There are many challenges in the search.

Jourdan said it’s an expensive and time-consuming adventure. He said it costs about $1 for every
second a ship is at sea.

One of the journeys ended early after two crew members became ill, “I knew immediately our trip
was over,” said Jourdan. The two recovered after returning to land, said Jourdan.

Over the years he said he had grown to appreciate the life of Earhart. He said he hoped to return to
Cedar Rapids one day soon with the Electra.

He hopes the plane will be taken all over the country when it is finally discovered.

“We would take it from city to city and ultimately it would be donated to the appropriate museum,” he
said.

Rod Blocksome, of Cedar Rapids, and a retired Rockwell-Collins systems analyst, said he had been
on the two previous expeditions with Jourdan.

Blocksome said he was looking forward to the next trip.

Nauticos is working right now to determine its date.

Blocksome said the science and adventure involved in finding Earhart’s plane is what keeps him
inspired to continue the search.

“It’s more than a quest,” he said.

Is southeast Iowa City’s bad reputation overblown? »

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Eastern Iowa Outdoors

Golf outing raises funds for local humane society

Posted July 31, 2010 5:46 pm by Christopher Pratt/SourceMedia Group News

5:46 p.m. edited

A tent is set up for people and pets to gather at "Putts for Pets," on Saturday, July 31, 2010. The Cedar Valley
Humane Society hosted the event to raise money for struggling animals. (Christopher Pratt/SourcMedia
Group News)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Around 90 people sank putts on a mini-golf course Saturday to raise money for
struggling pets in eastern Iowa.

Foursomes played the greens of the Airport National Golf Course, 3001 Wright Brothers Blvd E, to raise
cash for the Cedar Valley Humane Society. The organization has worked to give life to struggling and
abandoned animals across the region.

People who participated in “Putts for Pets” laughed and joked, all while raising money to help the
humane society fulfill its mission. The cost was $50 for a foursome and $15 per individual.

When the weather warms there is more of a need to provide care for stray dogs and cats, says Sarah
Larison, a spokeswoman for the group.

She says that for more than a century the local humane society has provided refuge for neglected
animals. In recent years their work has been needed more. “Especially after the flood of 2008, the cat
population just grew exponentially,” said Larison.

The organization also cares for other animals, “we actually have two really big rabbits right now,” said
Larison.
The total amount of money raised wasn’t yet known.

Learn more about the Cedar Valley Humane Society.

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« Grants help ECO Iowa City with three gardens

Monticello camping area blocks access to some

sites
Christopher Pratt/SourceMedia Group News, 23 July 2010, No comments
Categories: lifestyle and leisure

MONTICELLO – a private campground has temporarily blocked access to low lying campsites,
because of the potential for flash flooding.
Water from the Delhi dam put Walnut Acres Campground at risk. So, the site has shut off access to
around 200 of its 266 camping grounds. All the affected sites are in low lying areas, says Kim Smith,
owner of the business, which is located at 22128 Highway 38, Monticello.
Sites on higher ground are still open.
The camp site was last subjected to flooding in 2008, said Smith. Many people were planning camp
out and also attend the Great Jones County Fair, said Smith.
But, those plans are now in jeopardy because of the potential for flash flooding. Some people are
gathering near the business office, waiting to see if the rain will cause the facility to be closed all
weekend. “Most people understand that it’s mother nature,” said Kim Smith.

Homegrown: More on naked ladies »

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It's about you
« Vinton Cruise

Camp Euforia comes to Lone Tree for seventh

year
Christopher Pratt/SourceMedia Group News, 18 July 2010, No comments
Categories: lifestyle and leisure

Updated – 7:31 p.m. on July 22: Corrected name and context of interview with Hanson.

(In the interest of full disclosure: The reporter and Eric Quiner grew up in the same neighborhood.
The interview wasn’t planned and the two hadn’t spoken in probably six years.)

LONE TREE—People traveling down Observatory Avenue Saturday may have heard music rising
from a Lone Tree farm.

Camp Euforia, a two day camping and music festival was here. About 20 bands played at the event
billed as Iowa’s Premier Independent Music Festival. Juno What?!, Public Property and Mountain
Standard Time were all scheduled to entertain. Four years ago the event drew about 850 people. This
year around 1,500 people were expected, said organizer Eric Quiner.

A ticket cost $55 in advance and $75 at the gate. The two day camping and music festival was about
connecting people to the rural land, said Quiner.

“If you have nice grounds people treat the grounds better, so that’s the kind of festival we’re after,”
said Quiner, 28. He said he wanted to sustain the festival for years to come. It’s important that people
respect the property and neighbors, he said.

To prepare for the weekend, Quiner said he coordinated with Johnson County agencies. A stretch of
Utah Avenue had tree sap applied to control dust flow, he said. In the past law enforcement had come
into contact with festival goers. “I think the people that probably deserved to be hassled usually
were,” said Quiner.
Jerry Hotz’s 120-acre farm, 5335 Utah Ave. has played host to the event every year since 2003, when
it was an appreciation event for fans of Quiner’s former band, Euforquestra. Back then Quiner was
struggling to make it as a musician, and was working part-time for Hotz on his farm in the town,
which has a population of about 1,200 people. The two discovered that they shared a love of the arts
and the land. Last year Quiner quit the band, but continued organizing the event.

At 5 p.m. Saturday the Iowa City Yacht Club stage was flocked by an energetic audience. Dead Larry
was rocking away. Cory Corey Hanson, 22, listened out on the lawn near a group of hula hoopers.
Hanson said he planned to camp out on the farm overnight. About 20 vendors lined a stretch of the
green lawn. Hanson was tempted by a stand. “I’m very finicky but it smells amazing,” he said.

Each year the festival brings in enough money to keep planning the next year, said Quiner. This event
means more than money. “Let’s just put it this way we’re not getting rich over the deal,” Quiner said.

It’s about a celebration of community, he said.

Former Pearson’s Drug Store customers gather to remember the old shop »

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