COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa — Columbus Junction is at the convergence of the Cedar and Iowa rivers, which have wreaked havoc in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and other points north during the Midwest’s devastating week of flooding. Local officials feared a “catastrophic levee failure” could swamp the small town with the fury of both rivers.

Such a failure has been averted, with the rivers cresting Sunday and slowly receding. Nonetheless, much of the town is submerged in up to 10 feet of water, and it will take weeks or months for it to recover.

Columbus Junction has only about 24 hours worth of water in its water tower, so residents have been ordered not to turn on their faucets so that the fire department can get water if needed. In fact, the department needed the water Sunday afternoon as a fire broke out in an apartment.

City officials are supplying bottled water at the local high school, and 50 Iowa National Guardsmen are providing bulk water for washing and flushing.

Columbus Junction is just one of countless small towns and many major cities devastated by flooding across the Midwest in the past week. In Cedar Rapids, it will be weeks before power is restored and many of the 24,000 evacuees can return home. Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin have also been hard hit.

Hundreds flee Iowa City homes

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A week’s work of frantic sandbagging by students, professors and the National Guard couldn’t spare this bucolic college town from the surging Iowa River, which has swamped more than a dozen University of Iowa campus buildings and forced the evacuation Sunday of hundreds of homes.

The swollen river wasn’t expected to begin receding until tonight.

— The Associated Press

Hundreds flee Iowa City homes

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A week’s work of frantic sandbagging by students, professors and the National Guard couldn’t spare this bucolic college town from the surging Iowa River, which has swamped more than a dozen University of Iowa campus buildings and forced the evacuation Sunday of hundreds of nearby homes.

The swollen river wasn’t expected to begin receding until tonight.