FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 18, 2009

Contact:

Jeff Stein, 319-230-8988

WDG Publishing, 800-626-0411

 

For one month in June 2008, water poured into numerous buildings and streets throughout Iowa, washing away years of memories, dreams and homes.

          

Now, following the one year anniversary of the floods, WDG Publishing in Cedar Rapids announces the first-ever comprehensive book of the Cedar River and Iowa River floods, One Week in June: The Iowa Floods of 2008.

 

The documentary-style book written by Jeff Stein, professor of communication arts at Wartburg College and the executive secretary of the Iowa Broadcast News Association, includes both poignant, never-before-seen photographs and a collection of remarkable stories of ordinary people in extraordinary times. 

 

“It takes an Iowan to truly understand and document the positive and negative Iowa experiences and spirits prior to, during, and after the 2008 floods,” Jason Follett, college educator and chair of the State Historical Society of Iowa Board of Trustees, said. “This is what award-winning journalist and noted historian Jeff Stein has achieved with his soulful narrative to the dramatic and vivid photography One Week in June shares with its readers.”

 

The 144-page book contains over 200 full color images collected from the communities impacted by the floods, and is now available in Barnes  & Noble and other stores throughout Iowa.

 

“Jeff Stein’s essays, alongside stunning pictures from that week in June, bring back sharp-focus memories of a time that touched all Iowans,” according to Trent Rice, president of the Iowa Broadcast News Association. “It is a moving testament to those who stood on the front lines of those battles against the water, fighting to save homes, neighborhoods, and often, entire towns.”

 

The pictures and narrative encompass the disaster of the Cedar River Valley and is a chronological and geographical look at the Cedar River’s destruction from Charles City southward. Flooding of the Iowa River in the areas of Iowa City and Coralville is also included, as well as the aftermath in communities south of the confluence of the Cedar and Iowa Rivers

 

“People did not want to talk about their experiences because no one thought what they did was anything special—yet there are countless examples of people going above and beyond to help their neighbors,” Stein said. “This is really a story of how people rallied together in the face of adversity, responding as only Iowans would do."
 

More information about the book, including a sample chapter, is available online at www.JeffStein.org.  The book may be ordered by calling WDG Publishing at 800-626-0411.