A Week Later, Residents Continue To Clean Up After The Flood

Rockford, Illinois- It has been a week since the Labor Day Flood. Paul Iverson lives on 7th Avenue in Rockford and his parents live next door. "Both of these homes were flooded up to the rafters and it was so bad we had the canoes out and we were floating on top of cars," says Paul. Now, they are all working together to clean up the two houses. "You drive to another part of town and you don`t even know this happened. Then you drive here and it`s a war-zone," says Paul. Out front of the two homes are piles and piles of items they have lost and they have not even cleared out both homes yet. Paul says he`s lost about $100,000 worth of antique radio shows and signed, 1st edition, vintage books he collected. "Most of it I think you saw out front," says Pauls father, Mark. Paul and his parents managed to save some photos, but say most of their memories reside in their minds now. "Everything else is gone. Gotta rebuild from square one," says Paul. At most of the other homes we went to on 7th Avenue no one was home. Anyone around is just cleaning up and no one is able to live in these homes right now. "It`ll be another 2-3 weeks before we can get back in, but we`re alive and that`s the important thing," says Mark.