CEDAR RAPIDS - Nearly one year after the flood, friends of Dorothy Nemecek have asked why she hasn’t found a new house and moved on.

“It’s not that they’re meaning to be nasty,” said Nemecek, 85, whose home near Czech Village was inundated with 7 1/2 feet of floodwater on its first floor. “They don’t realize what we’ve gone through.”

Living in a Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home since September, Nemecek has found support among fellow flood survivors who understand her situation.

She is one of a half-dozen people who meet regularly in one of the weekly discussion groups set up through Project Recovery Iowa.

The comments Nemecek hears aren’t unusual, said Kendy Merrill, an Abbe Center social worker and team leader for Project Recovery Iowa.

Friends and relatives who haven’t experienced the flood think people should be over the disaster by now, Merrill said.

Project Recovery Iowa is a state program that provides free crisis counseling after last year’s flood. Twelve discussion groups formed post-flood, with six still active.

“It can be really empowering to be around people who have gone through the same thing you’ve gone through,” Merrill said. “People really are resilient as long as they are able to get some answers.”

Merrill said flood survivors learn helpful information from other members of the group.

The groups meet in mobile home parks where people affected by the flood have moved.

Members decide the topics. Discussion might center on frustrations, stress management or money management.

“It’s really getting the community together,” Merrill said. “Support is such a huge part of moving on to the next phase.”

Christine Knight said she gave a fellow group member some extra dining room chairs her family had received after hearing the woman needed them.

Flood recovery discussion groups

Anyone affected by the flood of 2008 can attend a group. Outreach workers are available for child care. For more information, call Project Recovery Iowa at (319) 297-3275. Here are the groups:

Eagle Ridge Community Room, 1285 Red Fox Way, Marion; 10 a.m. Mondays

Five Seasons Community Room, 3421 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE; 5 p.m. Mondays

Kirkwood Estates Community Room, 615 Miller Ave. Dr. SW;
10 a.m. Tuesdays

Cedar Terrace Community Room, 1834 Gretchen Dr. SW; 5 p.m. Tuesdays

Bali Hai Recreation Center, 1405 Robins Rd., Hiawatha; 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays

Kirkwood Estates Community Room, 615 Miller Ave. Dr. SW; 5 p.m. Thursdays

She has attended meetings, even after her family moved back into their home in southwest Cedar Rapids last fall. Their home’s first floor was soaked by almost a half-foot of floodwater.

“We really didn’t think we’d get any (flooding,)” said Knight, 42, who has lived in the home for six years with her husband, Dan, and their daughter. “We lost all of our clothes and everything left in the basement.”

Knight said the meetings have been helpful.

“You can talk to other people who have been through the same things that you’ve been through,” Knight said.

Nemecek said a former neighbor is in her group at the Cedar Terrace community room.

A retired school cafeteria manager, Nemecek basically started over after losing everything in the home where she lived for 66 years.

“You’ve still got to mow the lawn and pay the taxes,” she said of the damaged home.

She has been searching for a small house to buy, waiting to hear if the city will buy out her home, and continues to do volunteer work with her church and other organizations.

Besides discussing challenges, members of the flood group share photos and have had a potluck dinner.

“We exchange ideas and things that we’ve done,” Nemecek said. “It makes you feel like you’re not alone and you’re not the only one.”