"I hope we all stay together like this"

From Kajari Ghosh Dastidar, a UI graduate student in computer science:

"Slowly and steadily the bad news started to pour in. Roads were getting closed and many people were evacuating from their homes. The news became a big reality to me when I heard one of my friends was forced to evacuate from the Hawkeye Court apartments. I was ready to host her, but she luckily got an empty room in a friend's apartment.

Fortunately, my apartment was saved from the flood, and I never had any problem. But I wanted to do something to help my community, and was not sure how to proceed with that. It is good that I was following the news closely, and regularly checking the University website. Everyone was calling for sand baggers, and I immediately went to the Main Library parking lot to join hands with others. It was an amazing site! Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and citizens were working like close friends in harmony. Everyone had the concern on their face, but at the same time they were energetic and happy.

I was there for hours like everyone else. It seemed nobody is getting tired! Everyone wanted to do more and never stop! What an amazing community spirit! I again went for sand bagging the next day on Madison street. Even my friend who was evacuated from her apartment had come. She said 'I don't want to see any more people forced to leave their houses.' We worked there till 3 pm when a University staff member came and told us to stop working, as a storm was brewing by then. We were all happy when he said the volunteers have surpassed the day's quota, and we have lots of extra sand bags to distribute to the community. It was an incredible feeling. Everybody started clapping, and we were shouting GO HAWKS! We wanted to work more and more and more, and save our beloved city from the flood waters.

We are going through a rough time. But, this showed how strong our community is! I hope we all stay together like this, joining hands, and very soon, we will be able to leave it behind as a bad past."