Build it: After the floods

When the flood waters broke through in the eastern Iowa city of Cedar Rapids, more than 100 city blocks were flooded. The water eventually dried up, but the damage still remains.

Imagine having to wait in order to start repairing that damage. That’s the predicament Iowa Northern Railway Company is in.

Unlike the highway system, which is government funded, the railroad tracks and bridges are the responsibility of the railroad companies that own them. Getting the money to fix them usually comes out of their own pockets.

Today sections of the Cedar River railroad bridge in Waterloo, Iowa, still remain underwater and inoperable. For Iowa Northern, this translates into a loss of half the company’s annual earnings. “Certainly, that’s a decent estimate,” says Joshua Sabin, director of operations of Iowa Northern.