The two phrases I’ve used the most this year: “These things happen” and “Onward and upward.”

10:20 a.m. June 12, my wife Lore and our son Chris were mandatorily evacuated from Park View Terrace neighborhood in Iowa City.

On June 18, I attended a meeting to figure how we might relocate programming for the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History, where I teach.

Some reactions to the flood were mind-numbingly dumb, while some responses were specifically intelligent, and even inspiring. The difference? Acceptance.

Mowing your yard just before mandatory evacuation vs. the foresight to mark the high water level throughout the city so as to plan for the future. I witnessed how acceptance was the best first move: It’s going to flood, and things will be a bit different for the foreseeable future, so let’s get on with it.  Acceptance: The situation is hopeless but not serious.

Post-flood ambiguity was much more challenging than building a levee around the neighborhood, so that being evacuated, for many folks, was a cakewalk compared to not knowing what came next. Dates and information are still now at least as important to recovery as bricks and mortar. With information, people tended to become helpful, allowing them a degree of control, which then promoted resiliency that benefitted others.

After contactors worked 90-hour weeks to convert a former Menards into Studio Arts, approximately 2,000 UI students began their art courses on time, Aug. 25. Now, one year after the flood that necessitated that effort, the Iowa River is lower.

These things happen.