From June 23 - October 25th 2008 Hands On Disaster Response volunteers helped parts of Iowa recover and rebuild following massive June flooding. 2000+ volunteers teamed up and made progress everyday. This video was produced for PCR’s closing event.

A new, interactive multimedia project about Czech Village businesses is now available online.

Czech Village, next to the Cedar River on 16th Avenue SW, was established more than 100 years ago for the neighborhood’s Czech immigrants to do their shopping, from clothes to shoes to food at butcher shops and bakeries.

Find the multimedia project here

Buildings that stood the test of time are still standing after the area was inundated by historic flooding last June.

Some of the gift shops, restaurants and other businesses have rebuilt and reopened. Others remain in limbo and some are gone forever.

Readers can find contact numbers and hours of reopened businesses and can add their thoughts and memories.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Flood leaves boulevard of broken dreams (cnn.com)
• Czech Village project uses new storytelling skills (stevebuttry.wordpress.com)

The video chronicles the floods of Eastern Iowa from June 8 to June 20 featuring more than 300 still photos from the Gazette photo staff and many front pages.

Photographers - Brian Ray, Cliff Jette, Courtney Sargent, Jim Slosiarek, Jonathan D. Woods and Liz Martin

Edited by Paul Jensen and Rollin Banderob

The unstoppable epic surge from GazetteOnline.com on Vimeo.

Ellis Boulevard resident Brian Johns, 43, had his home severely damaged by the June flood, including several pieces of memorabilia from his favorite celebrity, James Dean.

Many people have seen it but might not know there person behind it. Johns has placed a reprint of the painting, Boulevard of Broken Dreams featuring Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Elvis Presley and Dean, on the front of his home as he rebuilds.

“We were emptying out my house and I saw it laying on the pile out in front and I thought that needs to go up on the front of the house because that’s what this is a boulevard of broken dreams,” Johns said.

A Boulevard of Broken Dreams from GazetteOnline.com on Vimeo.

The Gazette has put together an interactive multimedia piece about the CRANDIC railroad bridge, which collapsed during massive flooding in June.

Since that time crews have worked to remove the debris. A plan to rebuild the bridge has not yet been announced.

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